Recently, Konstantin Lomashuk, the co-founder of the Ethereum staking protocol Lido, established a Twitter account named Second Foundation. This led many to believe that this staking protocol, controlling 30% of Ethereum nodes, was aligning with a trend of rebellion, aiming to establish the second foundation of the Ethereum ecosystem. Konstantin Lomashuk realized the seriousness of the situation was beyond expectations and promptly clarified on Twitter that his intentions were limited to the platform and he did not actually plan to establish a foundation within the Ethereum ecosystem.
The Ethereum community has become divided, with core developers departing following the success of Solana. Vitalik Buterin urgently announced plans to reform the Ethereum Foundation. Recently, Ethereum core developer Eric Conner penned a lengthy reflection on his initial encounter with Ethereum and the insights gained along the way. However, he ultimately expressed that he no longer held a .eth domain.
Rumors circulated about the co-founder of the Lido protocol establishing a second foundation in direct competition with the Ethereum Foundation. This may have acted as a catalyst, leading to a growing distrust within the community towards Ethereum, with fingers even pointing at Ayako Miyuki, a director at the Ethereum Foundation.
At this juncture, Konstantin Lomashuk, the co-founder of the Ethereum staking protocol Lido, created a Twitter account under the name Second Foundation. It appeared as though he aimed to establish the second foundation of the Ethereum ecosystem to regain influence. As Lido protocol is the largest staking protocol on Ethereum, controlling nearly 30% of Ethereum nodes, the potential establishment of a foundation by Konstantin Lomashuk seemed plausible.
Konstantin Lomashuk stepped forward to clarify his lack of intent to form a foundation. He acknowledged the severity of the situation and stated:
This was merely a post, and there were no actual plans to establish a second foundation. Ethereum is the ultimate world computer, and every Ethereum user can assist in its growth, development, and success. If there is a need for a second foundation, it must have a clear purpose to complement the significant work of current contributors. I appreciate everyone’s support and believe we need more organizations contributing to Ethereum. I will follow up on these thoughts after discussions with those extending a helping hand.
Lido reveals its hand, aligning with Vitalik in the Ethereum political struggle
Previously, many voices had viewed Lido’s control of 30% of nodes as a symbol of centralization, but Ethereum’s stance was to avoid active intervention as much as possible. Before establishing the second foundation, Konstantin Lomashuk had retweeted Vitalik’s post, which stated:
The future computer of the world is decentralized. The Ethereum Foundation is only a part of the world computer. Perhaps some organizations that people want to reform are not the Ethereum Foundation but Consensys (or similar organizations). The Ethereum Foundation should not change course midway.
Implicitly, the Ethereum Foundation maintains its non-commercial priority, while Konstantin Lomashuk’s retweet seemed to directly declare a position in Ethereum’s political struggle.
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