Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin says he remains optimistic about the future of Ethereum following its relatively stable performance through the latest cryptocurrency winter. Speaking at the Web3 event Building Blocks 23 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lubin touched on several subjects, including Ethereum’s market performance over the past year and its future potential.
Lubin believes that Ethereum’s resilience through the recent crypto winter, including the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the demise of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is reason to be positive for the future of the ecosystem. He also sees potential for more great projects and “tremendous innovation” in the future, thanks to the enabling infrastructure that has already been built.
Despite a tough year for the cryptocurrency markets, Lubin takes positives out of the resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem and the value being realized by high-profile companies exploring the non-fungible token (NFT) space. He also highlighted Ethereum’s ability to hold its value around $1,200 for an extended period, even as certain “CeFi” players imploded, as a reason to be positive for the future of the ecosystem.
The Ethereum Merge and the introduction of its fee-burning mechanism, which made Ethereum deflationary for the first time in November 2022, also played a significant role in ETH’s market value in recent months. Lubin believes that making Ether deflationary is important to ensure the underlying asset increases in value over time. He is confident that the Ethereum ecosystem will not see any further changes in its monetary supply and that a continual contraction of the monetary base is likely to continue.
Ethereum is now gearing up for the Shanghai hard fork, in which staked ETH in the Beacon Chain will be enabled, with user awards available for withdrawal. The Ethereum Foundation has tentatively set a deployment date of March 2023.