Another Ethereum Proposal Met with a Wave of Criticism

There is yet another Ethereum proposal which proved controversial and which divided the community: some of the Ethereum developers are considering an option to finance themselves from the block rewards, while many in the community stand against the idea, arguing about how the rewards can be used and by whom.

Ethereum community members rediscovered an Ethereum Improvement Proposal, EIP-2025, posted twenty-eight days ago. It proposes 0.0055 ETH per block for 3,100,000 blocks (or c. USD 3.6 million at current prices in total), or for 18 months, as a developer block reward for funding Ethereum 1.x (a codename for a comprehensive set of upgrades to the Ethereum mainnet intended for near-term adoption) development.

Eric Conner, a Gnosis, a blockchain startup, product researcher and longtime Ethereum advocate, was apparently the first to tweet about it, finding the idea absurd, and soon making a correction that the EIP has a typo – it’s 0.0055 ETH per block, not 0.044 – confirmed by James Hancock, who put forward the proposal. That fact does not help the current mood in the community though.

The criticism continued pouring in. While Conner argued that “it’s important to set a precedent that block rewards cannot be captured”, adding that it’s “an insanely slippery slope”, others agreed saying that it’s vital for the protocol to stay neutral.

Investor by the name Aftab ‘DCinvestor’ Hossain also rejected the idea, tweeting that the community has spoken: “experimental dev funding mechanisms via block rewards, even for “testing” purposes, are a no-go”, and adding that the amount of ETH in question is not relevant – “the precedent and mechanism” are.

Some people offered other options for funding, like Anthony Sassano, who is doing marketing for the digital asset called Set Protocol, and is a co-founder of EthHub, independent and open-source initiative and a source for Ethereum information. He tweeted that he is against this particular EIP, but not against funding relevant development work on Ethereum. The alternative funding option he shared are:

• DAOs (Decentralized autonomous organizations) such as Moloch or MetaCartel
• Gitcoin grants (Gitcoin is an open source bounties platform on the Ethereum blockchain)
• Pooled Dai idea suggested by Conner
• Ethereum foundation grants.

Nonetheless, some in the community saw this proposal as theft.

Ameen Soleimani, co-creator of Moloch DAO, said in a Twitter thread that Ethereum 1.x is planned to be obsolete and that increasing the block rewards like it was proposed will weaken Ethereum as a store of value. Spencer Noon, investor at Doggie Tail Crypto Capital , also joined the debate.

However, developer Udi Wertheimer replied to Conner, saying that he is spreading misinformation, as there’s nothing in the notes from the core developers meeting from five days ago to suggest that the proposal is being seriously considered. “The only reference to it at all is neutral, and made by the proposal author”, he says, adding “Even *I* know that this proposal has no chance of being accepted.”
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Hancock, on the other hand, stated that he wanted the community feedback on this issue and to “keep it coming”.

Meanwhile, just the other day, the community was in an uproar, disapproving a new Ethereum scalability solution, which would include using the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain as the data layer, proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

In May, the Ethereum Foundation, which presents itself as is “a resource allocator, a voice in the ecosystem, and an advocate for Ethereum to the world,” said it will spend USD 30 million over the next 12 months on areas such as “building the Ethereum of tomorrow” (USD 19 million), “supporting the Ethereum of today” (USD 8 million) and on “developer growth and awareness” (USD 3 million).

At pixel time (9:50 UTC), ether trades at c. USD 212 and is down by 5% in the past 24 hours and by 7% in the past week.