Vitalik Buterin has just made serious revelations that damage the reputation of Ethereum. In a video that has gone viral, the Ethereum co-founder unwittingly reveals that there are backdoors in all of ETH’s Layer 2s that allow developers to make adjustments when they deem it necessary. The crypto community then got carried away and worried. As we celebrated Ethereum which was positioning itself as the new monetary layer of the internet with the integration of PayPal, this new revelation raises real doubts about the security of funds and data stored on Ethereum and about decentralization of the network.
“There are backdoors in all layers 2 of Ethereum” dixit Vitalik Buterin
Only a few weeks ago, Vitalik Buterin made recommendations for improving the efficiency of the Bitcoin blockchain. At the time, ETH investors could not imagine that they would learn a few weeks later of the existence of backdoors on Ethereum layers 2.
In a recent online interview, Vitalik Buterin dropped the sentence that will trigger a cascade epidermal reactions within the community. The portion of the video that was quickly picked up and published by critics of the network, shows Vitalik Buterin in front of his computer, saying exactly the following:
“Basically, rollups and the 2 layers existing on Ethereum today contain all […] training wheels, a kind of backdoor that allows developers to enter and, for example, stop and change the protocol if they find that there has been a bug. »
Error or poorly controlled honesty, we do not know how to qualify this statement. Vitalik was no doubt trying to explain that the developers of Ethereum have provided a security mechanism that works like a backdoor and allows the developers of the protocol to come in and intervene in case there are problems. But the effect obtained was completely the opposite of what he hoped for.
The crypto community is racing: doubts about the security and decentralization of Ethereum
Rather than reassuring ETH users, Vitalik Buterin’s statement cast a heavy shadow of doubt over the network’s practices. The fundamental issues of security and decentralization come back to the table with regard to the layer 2 solutions offered by Ethereum.
Indeed, for the crypto community, the existence of backdoors on Ethereum constitutes a vulnerability that hackers can exploit to secretly access the network. And if such secret access doors were to become accessible to hackers, it could mean that the security of cryptocurrencies and data stored in layer 2 solutions is no longer guaranteed.
Better, with this statement from Vitalik, hackers who were unaware of the existence of these backdoors on Ethereum now know it. One thing is certain, the crypto community has not taken this information lightly. The video quickly went viral, giving free rein to all Ethereum critics, starting with the Cardano community.
Cardano community members go after ETH
In reality, Layer 2 solutions also called “Rollups” are intended to solve the scalability problems of the Ethereum blockchain. They help process transactions off-chain, which helps reduce transaction times and load on the mainchain.
Unfortunately, the co-founder of Ethereum did not know how to find the right words to express his thoughts, thus throwing Ethereum’s reputation as food to its detractors and to the competitors of the network which has just achieved a feat by integrating the payment giant. international, PayPal.
Seizing on his words, the Cardano community has been full of criticism of Ethereum’s practices which they describe as dubious and which, according to them, are contrary to the true aspirations of cryptocurrencies. In particular, on X (formerly Twitter), on August 13, 2023, user Chris O., avid Cardano advocate, comments:
“WOW!! Vitalik says aloud what’s happening on mute. There is a backdoor in every Layer 2 and Rollup on $ETH for protocol developers. This is how immutability, permissionlessness, and censorship resistance look. That’s not what we call #Crypto. At this point, I don’t see how anyone could question the fact that #Cardano and to a lesser extent $BTC…”.
If he chose not to finish his sentence, user Chris O. was clearly implying that only Cardano truly upholds the ideology of digital currencies and to a lesser extent Bitcoin as well.
An Ethereum developer drives the point home and says why he leaks Ethereum staking
Vitalik Buterin’s statement is not the only reputational damage to the Ethereum network at the moment. Indeed, another player in the crypto universe recently posted a video of an interview in which we see an Ethereum developer who admitted that he cannot stake all his ETH tokens. He claims that he is investing less and less tokens in Ethereum staking.
The reason, specifies the developer after a moment of reflection, is that ” when you have participated in the making of the sausage, you cannot forget what the sausage is made of “. In other words, his inability to invest in staking stems from his knowledge and understanding of the “undersides” of the ETH network.
This latest video, which has totaled tens of thousands of views in a few hours, follows an intervention by Charles Hoskinson in which he claimed that Cardano’s staking services were more attractive than those of Ethereum.
In a context where we are witnessing the rise of several challengers on the crypto market and where we wonder who will reign over Layer 1, these dissident voices raised on the security and decentralization of Ethereum are not doing it a favor. Vitalik Buterin will have to speak again to reassure the community and restore confidence.
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