Charles Hoskinson, one of the original co-founders of Ethereum and the founder of Cardano (ADA), has made a few critical comments about Ethereum over the years. When he says things like “Ethereum will vanish in 10 years,” he’s usually pointing to a few key criticisms:
1. Poor Governance: Hoskinson believes Ethereum lacks a clear, structured governance model. He thinks without proper on-chain governance (the ability for the community to manage upgrades and decisions systematically), Ethereum could eventually collapse under its own political and technical disputes.
2. Scalability Problems: He often criticizes Ethereum for its ongoing struggles with scalability. Even after upgrades like The Merge (moving from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake), he argues Ethereum’s roadmap is too slow and messy, and that future scaling solutions like sharding are too complex and risky.
3. Technical Debt: According to Hoskinson, Ethereum has accumulated a lot of “technical debt” — meaning its early design decisions have created underlying issues that are hard to fix without breaking the system. He often contrasts this with Cardano’s “formal methods” and peer-reviewed development process.
4. Competition: He believes newer blockchains (including Cardano, obviously, but also others like Polkadot, Avalanche, etc.) are designed with more modern architectures and could outcompete Ethereum over time as they offer faster, cheaper, and more scalable solutions.
5. Philosophical Differences: Fundamentally, Hoskinson thinks Ethereum focuses too much on making a “world computer” without considering broader social, governance, and global financial inclusion goals — goals that Cardano emphasizes heavily.
In short, Charles predicts that without better governance, faster innovation, and fundamental redesign, Ethereum will eventually be replaced by more advanced platforms.
Do you agree with him?
