PlanB, a well-known cryptocurrency analyst and developer of the Bitcoin S2F model, recently strongly criticized Ethereum on the X platform, calling it a "centralized, pre-mined, proof-of-stake (PoS)-based garbage coin with arbitrary supply changes."
PlanB, a cryptocurrency analyst and developer of the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model, strongly criticized Ethereum (ETH) on the social platform X on April 20.
He retweeted a tweet from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in June 2022 (which criticized the S2F model at the time), and used it as an opportunity to fight back against Ethereum, calling it a "centralized, pre-mined, proof-of-stake (PoS)-based, and arbitrarily changing supply schedule" garbage coin. PlanB said in the tweet:
Ethereum is looking really bad right now. I know it’s a bit rude to gloat over someone’s misfortune, but I think shitcoins like Ethereum, which are centralized, pre-mined, use proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work (PoW), and change supply schedules at will, are harmful to the ecosystem and deserve all the ridicule they get.
PlanB's Criticisms
In the interaction with the community, PlanB's criticisms mainly focus on the following aspects:
First, he believes that Ethereum's "pre-mining" behavior through the initial coin offering (ICO) allows a large amount of ETH to be distributed to early investors and developers before the network is launched. This is different from Bitcoin's fair distribution model and is not in line with the spirit of decentralization.
Secondly, he questioned Ethereum’s decision to switch from a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism after the “merge” in 2022, believing that this concentrated power in the hands of a few large players, further exacerbating the risk of centralization.
He also criticized the lack of fixedness in Ethereum’s supply schedule, which allows developers to adjust the issuance of ETH at will, in stark contrast to Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins.
In summary, PlanB believes that these problems show that Ethereum is much more centralized than Bitcoin, and even the basic security and decentralization principles cannot be guaranteed.
How has the community responded?
PlanB's remarks quickly sparked heated discussions in the cryptocurrency community, with Bitcoin supporters and Ethereum supporters holding different views and taking different positions.
Bitcoin supporters generally agree with PlanB's view that Ethereum has been centrally committed since its inception. Some even said, "Holding Ethereum instead of more Bitcoin is my biggest mistake."
Ethereum supporters refuted PlanB's criticism as too one-sided, pointing out that PlanB ignored Ethereum's innovative contributions in smart contracts, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Some users defended Ethereum, saying that the reason for Ethereum's poor performance was the global liquidity contraction, not proof of stake or other words that Bitcoin extremists like to use, and that the value of Ethereum should not be limited to price performance, but more to the long-term potential of its ecosystem.
As for my opinion, I asked PlanB's comments, which are also slightly biased. After all, Ethereum is the most decentralized project besides Bitcoin. Which of the other top ten currencies in terms of market value, XRP, SOL, BNB, etc., is not more centralized? To be frank, the most criticized aspect of Ethereum by the community is still the poor performance of the currency price.
