Does Ethereum need to maximize profits?

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Andrew Keys is an Ethereum OG that includes the qualification, taking part in the first Ethereum Meetup in 2014, including making ETH more than $1.

“The first time Ethereum passed a dollar was because they placed the authorized version of Ethereum’s Java client on top of azure,” he said in The Empire Podcast. Wall Street Journal Paul Vigna has created the concept of blockchain as a service. ”

Reading the 2015 Vigna article reminds us how much hasn’t changed in 10 years.

The story that justifies a dollar ETH was when Microsoft’s Azure uses Ethereum to “improve operations from accounting to logistics and cross-border payments and settlements.”

It never really happened, but we are now racing towards a $5,000 ETH with the same idea that it will be the blockchain for the company Ethereum’s chosen company.

This remains a guess.

Ethereum produced a $1.4 million Rev yesterday. This, of course, produced more Revs than in 2015, but not much compared to the $4,400 token price and the $531 billion market capitalization.

However, Keys believes it is a low rating because Ethereum is lowering its services.

“At the expense of short-term profitability, the Ethereum Foundation has decided to make the L1 Blob space cheaper,” he explained. “I think in the end the Ethereum community will say, ‘Well, this is too cheap.’ And you can raise that price. ”

Let’s consider this Uber theory of Ethereum’s value. “Uber is ubiquitous, so we tripled the price,” Keys said.

He expects Ethereum to do the same thing. “As Blockspace becomes more competitive, we can increase prices.”

Uber is an extreme example of a standard playbook for businesses that maximize profits, so you can see why he cites it.

But one layered blockchain is not a company. And I don’t know if they are intended to maximize profits.

Instead, I thought the idea was to make block space as cheap as possible (without sacrificing decentralization) and get as much as possible.

If the blocks are full and transactions are becoming more expensive, the token holders make money in the process, that’s great.

But it seems to make the transaction expensive, so token holders make money… isn’t it too crypto?

A single layer crypto token needs value, primarily to prevent spam and provide security.

But ideally, the additional value comes from higher usage, not higher prices.

And even if profitability is the main goal, a higher price may not be the way to achieve that.

Keys quotes “Blobspace” as a source of profit for the future. This is a cheap, dedicated lane that allows for temporary large amounts of data to be used for anyone to verify.

But does the blobspace have a moat?

“Make your data available” doesn’t sound like a differentiated service with pricing power. How difficult is it to store data?

Key speculates that Ethereum would argue that it has pricing power due to its security guarantees, branding and market capitalization.

But it remains speculative at this point, and I think it would be easier to launch a new blockchain than a new riding sharing service.

So I don’t know if Uber is the best business model for Ethereum to emulate.

Walt Disney Way

Ward Kimball believes Walt Disney’s wealth never does not try to become rich.

Disney told staff not to mention the costs – if something made the movie or the park better, he wanted it, whatever the price was.

He built a zoo in the studio lot so that animators could study animals while they were making it. Bambi. He claimed that the gargoyles in Disney World Castles are too expensive to see and are sculpted in detail.

For Disney, animation and theme parks were passion projects that he opposed all financial advice, often on the brink of bankruptcy.

Of course, it worked out in the end. This proves that sometimes the most profit is not maximizing profit.

Otherwise, the most profitable thing to maximize is not earning any profits.

For example, Linus Torvalds created his fortune by offering a free Linux operating system. Forever.

It’s easy to imagine Torvalds becoming even more wealthy if Torvalds even charged a few cents to use Linux. Run billions of devices with the software he invented, and collect exactly $0 from there.

However, Linux has become a global phenomenon because it is free to use and can be built freely. This is freedom that transforms users into contributors.

Torvalds developed Linux with the help of thousands of enthusiasts who wanted to contribute to open source projects simply because they believed it.

By accessing the source code, users didn’t just report bugs to Torvalds.

Early in development, this allowed Torvalds to frequently release updated Linux kernels every day.

It is impossible to imagine Microsoft releasing a new version of Windows every day.

It is equally impossible to imagine that Linux could have been built in other ways.

Today, Torvalds are estimated to be worth between $50 million and $150 million. It’s certainly a big number. But it’s also a small slice of unmeasurable value that Linux has created for the world.

Still, small slices of huge numbers are generally better than giant slices of small ones.

If Torvalds was charging against Linux, his slices could have been 100% empty.

Unlike Linux, Ethereum cannot be made free. The chain won’t work unless there’s a cost to use it.

But you don’t need to maximize your profit either.