The DAO Architect Exit’s Ethereum, Says Web3 is a Mess

The DAO architect Stephen Tual left Ethereum for good.
He did so because he believes web3 is not heading in the direction it should be heading to.
After 9 years in Ethereum, he could not stay amidst the many failures anymore.

The DAO architect turns his back on Ethereum after nine years. Stephen Tual was one of the main designers of The DAO in 2016. Last week, he sent an email to an Ethereum London meet-up. The email marked his stepping-down from running the meet-up.

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More shockingly, he said he would be leaving Ethereum forever. His reason for doing so is on account of the state that has become of the blockchain. Specifically, he says that the network has turned into a mess. In detail, he points out how the space is home to a circus of centralized NFTs, illegal securities, and endless ponzi schemes.

I cannot, in good conscience, continue to act like ‘all is well’ in Web3. As of August 15th, 2022, the ‘blockchain’ (or should I use the hedge-fund coined terminology ‘distributed ledger’?) has turned into a circus of centralized NFTs, endless Ponzi schemes, illegal securities or turncoat sycophants pledging loyalty to the nearest regulator. I do not recognize myself in that space, not even one bit.

He goes on to post another open letter where he laments over how the concept of DAO itself seems to have become a centralized pump and dump ICOs. In this letter he says “A DAO is NOT an ICO”.

He expands on this saying it is not a space for creators to ‘keep a cut’ or generate ‘artificial scarcity’ and then ‘pump and dump’. Especially not when other members are asked to ‘hodl’. Following this, he says he is sad to report this ideology continues to corrupt the blockchain space. Finally, he concludes in the open letter by saying that the DAO failure was caused by a flaw in the Ethereum programming language solidity. This led to a re-entrancy attack which exploited a vulnerability to the chain. Lastly, the letter says that these attacks have led to over $4 billion losses in the last 5 years.

Lauren Cole

A focused and vigilant storyteller for all things blockchain and cryptocurrency. Besides consuming every piece of literature about the metaverse, she can often be found at industry convections looking for the latest scoop.