Ethereum co-founder defends VC role amid Paradigm influence fears

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said venture capital firms like Paradigm try to make profit but still help bring money and support into the Ethereum ecosystem.

Lubin posted on X and said Paradigm and other venture capitalists (VCs) want to to take as much value as they can from Ethereum and the wider ecosystem. He explained that their role is normal and only temporary as the industry keeps growing. His comments came as the community discussed the growing influence of big investment funds on the governance and research of Ethereum. 

Lubin says VCs help connect global capital to the growth of Ethereum

Joseph Lubin said VCs take ideas and projects that begin in decentralized communities and make them ready for the traditional investors who control large amounts of global capital. He explained that many global investors do not yet fully understand crypto or trust it enough to invest directly, so VCs offer them familiar systems for managing money, checking projects, and protecting investments. This effort allows more capital to enter the crypto industry and reduces the feature that comes with new and unfamiliar technology.

“We need VCs for now because they represent a comfortable bridge for the world’s capital to flow into our ecosystem.” the Ethereum co-founder said. Some people believe the influence of VCs is a risk to decentralization, but he sees it as a temporary phase. Lubin said Ethereum needs to work with the current financial system while building tools that will one day replace it.

The co-founder of Ethereum also said new and fair “onchain investment platforms” will allow anyone, anywhere in the world, to invest in projects using tokens and smart contracts instead of going through large investment firms. 

“Very soon better, fairer, more broadly accessible onchain investment platforms with healthy tokenomics will mature sufficiently so that VCs will have no choice but to set up shop on these platforms,” Lubin said. The few large investors or organizations will slowly lose lose that power and ownership to people who actually use, build, and support these new systems. 

He believes Ethereum’s greatest strength lies in its openness, transparency, and neutrality. These values make it possible for people from every part of the world to connect, trade, and build together without depending on old financial institutions.

Paradigm’s new hires spark debate over its growing role in Ethereum

There has been intense debate in the cryptocurrency community about the growing influence of Paradigm in the Ethereum ecosystem. People voiced their concerns after two of the most respected researchers on the network took roles in projects backed by the venture capital firm.

One of the researchers is Dankrad Feist, a long-time and highly respected member of the Ethereum Foundation. Feist announced that he was leaving the Ethereum Foundation to join Tempo, a new layer-1 blockchain that focuses on payments and stablecoins. The project aims to build a faster and more efficient blockchain system for global payments that can compete with both traditional payment rails and existing crypto networks.

Mallesh Pai, who had previously worked with Consensys, joined Paradigm earlier in the year as a research adviser. He will guide the company’s growing research operations before moving to Tempo full-time in September. This information is according to his LinkedIn page. 

People say Paradigm could get too much control over the people and ideas that influence the long-term development of Ethereum, especially after Pai joined the firm immediately after Feist.

Some users on social media say the growing number of corporate-backed blockchains like Tempo will slowly pull resources, talent, and energy away from the public networks of decentralized systems. 

However, some developers and analysts said the support from Paradigm will give scientists like Feist and Pai more freedom, funding, and infrastructure to experiment with new ideas that could later benefit the entire industry.

Lubin responded to these debates and said he does not see Paradigm’s involvement as a threat to the independence that Ethereum has worked so hard to build. He explained that these movements are a natural and even healthy part of the evolution of any growing technology ecosystem.

The Ethereum eco-founder added that more people now see this technology as a big part of the global economy because big companies and venture firms have shown a lot of interest in building new blockchains.

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