Wall Street · Ethereum · Vitalik Buterin · Circle · CoinDesk
Wall Street's private blockchain obsession is a 'race to the bottom,' Ethereum advocate Raman warns
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A resurgence in private, gated blockchains that differ fundamentally from open, public networks like Ethereum and Solana by creating silos that don't talk to each other eats away at the potential the technology was designed to achieve, according to Vivek Raman, the co-founder and CEO of Etherealize.
Key facts
- The 10-year-old blockchain is a base layer for billions of dollars in tokenized assets and the settlement layer underpinning much of decentralized finance (DeFi)
- It's like we're having consortium chain 2.0,” said Raman in an interview
- But familiarity with blockchains and distributed-ledger technology has moved on since 2016
- Ethereum stands in contrast to the permissioned systems that are becoming increasingly popular again, as evidenced by the rise of Digital Asset’s Canton Network, Circle’s stablecoin payments play ARC
Summary
The resurgence of private, permissioned “consortium chains” risks recreating siloed systems that undermine the interoperability and liquidity blockchain technology was meant to enable, Etherealize CEO Raman says. Etherealize, backed by Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation, is pitching Ethereum’s open mainnet as the neutral base to which institutions can add permissioned and privacy-preserving features at higher layers. The rapid uptake of gated networks by major firms contrasts with new Ethereum-based products from firms like BlackRock, sharpening a debate over whether institutional adoption will favor open, public chains or curated systems controlled by corporate sponsors. Etherealize acts to attract traditional finance (TradFi) firms to Etheruem.