Written by: Consensys
Compiled & Edited by: LenaXin, ChainCatcher
Every financial transaction contains an element of trust. Ethereum's digital trust enables the digitization of vast amounts of assets, capital, and financial transactions, greatly enhancing the efficiency of the global financial system, allowing everyone from institutions to businesses to consumers to benefit.
On July 30, Ethereum celebrated its tenth anniversary. On this occasion, Consensys released the (Industrialization of Trust) report, a detailed document outlining the investment case for Ethereum and the emerging technology category of 'Trustware.' 'Trustware' is an infrastructure that industrializes trust production, allowing trust to be encoded in the form of digital goods.
Consensys research and analysis indicate that Ethereum has become the dominant blockchain platform, supporting over 50% of non-Bitcoin digital assets, including 60% of stablecoins, 60% of decentralized finance capital, and 80% of tokenized 'real-world assets' such as stocks, money market funds, and bonds.
Ethereum's Breakthrough: Digital Trust and Trust Software
Trust software is an infrastructure capable of upgrading the simulated concept of trust—such as notes and ledgers verified by human agents and guaranteed by human insurance companies and regulators—into an equivalent digital trust concept generated by algorithms.
For centuries, human civilization has relied on various forms of trust infrastructure, from tribal kinship to large institutions such as governments, insurance companies, audit firms, and legal systems. While these systems have facilitated cooperation and economic growth, the costs have been exorbitant. It is estimated that humanity spends over $9 trillion annually on trust-related aspects, including insurance ($8.0 trillion), legal systems (over $1.0 trillion), and auditing ($290 billion). This massive expenditure highlights a fundamental problem: the current trust models cannot effectively scale in the digital age. They are analog—slower, more expensive, and more fragmented than the always-online, highly automated, and fast-evolving digital economy they serve.
Trust software endows ordinary data with the essential qualities of trust through a fully algorithmic process: validity and finality. Validity ensures the consistency and correctness of data with mathematical certainty. Finality ensures the permanence of data, making it nearly impossible to change without significant cost.
Ethereum allows these properties to be added to data in a scalable manner without ongoing human intervention, achieving trust at nearly zero marginal cost. In this way, with its powerful public network and groundbreaking cryptoeconomic algorithms that generate digital trust, Ethereum significantly enhances the verification of financial transactions in terms of speed, cost, security, and scale.
Investment Case
For years, investors have regarded ETH as the 'second-largest cryptocurrency.' This is true, but it is of little significance. Today, they realize that ETH represents explosive growth in stablecoins and other tokenized assets, which they see discussed in business channels every day and may even be using in their daily lives.
They understand that ETH underpins the prediction markets they see online, and ETH also supports the new type of tokenized stocks that Robinhood is launching. With the introduction of landmark legislative proposals such as the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, this wave of innovation will only intensify. Ethereum's role as the platform driving the future global economy is increasingly gaining attention.
Ethereum was born for this moment from the very beginning. In terms of security, assurance, and resilience, Ethereum is top-notch. The tenth anniversary of the genesis block is also a celebration of its unparalleled achievements in the digital and traditional asset technology fields over the past decade.
Economic Security: With over $100 billion in staked capital and more than 1 million validators, Ethereum has built a robust defense capability, effectively resisting attacks.
Network Effects: Ethereum has the deepest liquidity, the most developers (twice as many as the next blockchain), and the richest application ecosystem. The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) standard dominates smart contract development, with all mainstream stablecoins using Ethereum as their primary platform.
Proven adaptability and continuous upgrades: Through complex upgrades such as the Merge (transition to proof of stake, reducing energy consumption by 99.95%) and Dencun (reducing aggregation costs by 90%), Ethereum has shown resilience and continuous improvement in its first decade without any downtime.
Global neutrality and decentralization: Unlike other centralized blockchains, Ethereum is not controlled by a single company or entity. Its over 1 million validator nodes are distributed across more than 80 countries/regions, with more than 67% of nodes operating outside the United States, demonstrating its antifragility and reliable neutrality.
Institutional validation and adoption: Global institutions such as BlackRock, JPMorgan, Visa, and Franklin Templeton have begun utilizing Ethereum for tokenized assets, payments, and private equity investments, validating its security model and reliability. The total amount of tokenized real-world assets on Ethereum has exceeded $13 billion, with a monthly growth rate of up to 6.75%.
Despite the maturity of Ethereum technology and the ongoing consolidation of the digital asset infrastructure market, its economic potential remains in the early stages. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies accounts for only 0.3% of global wealth, and tokenized securities represent only a small portion of capital markets.
However, increasing regulatory clarity, especially in the United States, is accelerating the adoption of cryptocurrencies, shifting from resistance to embracing digital assets. The integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain has created an unprecedented demand for trustless infrastructure: as AI agents begin trading at machine speed, they will require machine trust. Ethereum is the only infrastructure prepared for an economic environment that requires algorithmic mutual trust.
For institutions, holding Ether (ETH) means owning the infrastructure of the digital economy at a price far below its eventual value. ETH can be used to pay for network transactions and serves as a means of value storage. Unlike Bitcoin, ETH can also generate cash flow through staking. Furthermore, like stocks, the value of ETH will increase as the Ethereum platform becomes more widely adopted. It combines the properties of commodities, currencies, and capital assets into a unique and highly attractive asset.
As the Trustware report points out, ETH serves as economic bandwidth, securing the assets expected to be issued and traded on the platform in the coming years, which will drive strong growth in its value.
The trust machine has been built.
The trust machine has been built. It operates continuously, self-improving and creating more value, attracting more users. The question is not whether to believe in Ethereum, but whether to believe in the digitization of trust. If one believes, then the rationale for owning a part of the future global economic infrastructure is self-evident.
