Placeholder Partner: Ethereum supporter from day one; Community is learning from mistakes and avoiding complacency

Original Author: Placeholder Partner Chris Burniske

Original Translation: Odaily Planet Daily

Editor's Note: On December 30, 2022, Solana experienced its darkest moment, with SOL falling to $8, the lowest price since the FTX collapse. On that day, former Ark Invest crypto lead and current Placeholder VC partner Chris Burniske posted a "milk post" publicly expressing bullish sentiment on SOL and stating plans to continue accumulating. The subsequent story is well known, with SOL skyrocketing and recently breaking $240, showing a strong trend of setting new highs.

Fast forward to November 2024, Ethereum gradually fell into a slump due to narrative bottlenecks and various other reasons. On November 17, Burniske once again published a similar "milk post," publicly supporting Ethereum and predicting a revival for the chain in the coming years. The following is the original content by Burniske, translated by Odaily Planet Daily.

In the previous bear market cycle, one of the reasons Placeholder has always been focused on Solana is the belief that it will become a mainstream blockchain for ordinary users, offering advantages in speed, lower fees, smoother transactions, and overall user experience. This has been reflected through the recent meme token craze.

However, we have always been supporters of Ethereum, and that has never changed.

In the new market cycle, although Ethereum may have lost some share of ordinary users to Solana (which has already occurred), the Ethereum community should continue to work to solidify the network's position as the hub of the Internet Financial System (IFS). The IFS is expected to become increasingly important between 2025 and 2030, attracting more users than we currently see entering the space.

Solana and other blockchains will also compete with Ethereum in the IFS field (which is already happening), but Ethereum still has a solid foundation. It has been around for over a decade, is second only to Bitcoin in brand recognition, has deep liquidity, and enterprises can build their own Layer 2 solutions around Ethereum, as Base has done.

While everyone is aware of the liquidity fragmentation issues with Layer 2 solutions (which will be addressed), it is well-suited for traditional financial enterprises as it allows them to achieve better control and directly convert revenue into profits. Other blockchains like Avalanche have also been paying attention to this and have adopted similar subnetwork structures, focusing on the IFS sector.

In a recent Ethereum community event, I felt excited about the discussions surrounding Ethereum.

The community is learning its lessons. During the bull market of 2018-2021, I believe the Bitcoin community fell into complacency, thinking they had succeeded and held the upper hand. Around 2021, BTC was somewhat 'left behind' and was even ridiculed as a 'boomer coin,' sparking a revival, which is also part of the reason why Bitcoin has risen again in this cycle.

Similarly, I believe some members of the Ethereum community have also fallen into the same complacency trap from 2022 to now, but as Ethereum is now being questioned as a laggard, many parts of the Ethereum ecosystem are about to be revitalized.

Just as Bitcoin went through a revival, we may see Ethereum experience a similar revival in the coming years, driven by competition-induced introspection.

The evolution of mainstream blockchains is an extremely long game—anyone who prematurely thinks they have won the war will fall into complacency and ultimately lose everything. We look forward to seeing how the status of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana will evolve in 2030 and beyond.