Ethereum’s Amazing Day Is Somehow A “Painful Lesson”?

Author: David Seaman

 

Ethereum is doing well after yesterday’s vote of confidence from Coinbase: the price of Ether is up 12.6% today according to CoinMarketCap, while market leader Bitcoin is down 1.5%.

I have to say, some Bitcoiners have not been reacting well to the news that Coinbase has integrated Ether. They haven’t been good sports about it, in my view - they haven’t been unbiased enthusiasts of blockchain technology.

Some have been downright rude. As Ether users celebrated the big news yesterday, a minority of Bitcoiners spread a horribly written and poorly argued piece by a Forbes.com contributor, “A Painful Lesson For The Ethereum Community.”

If a 12.6% one day gain and acceptance on a platform used by 4.1 million cryptocurrency enthusiasts is a “painful lesson,” the currency would probably welcome even more profitable “painful lessons” in the future.

What a pathetic hatchet job. The contributor’s Forbes.com piece also refers to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin as an “Ethereum guru” - if the author isn’t even aware he is the creator, how nuanced is the rest of her analysis? (Hint: Not very.)

This would be like referring to Steve Jobs as an Apple hobbyist or Henry Ford as a Model T enthusiast... well, yes, but also...

If Ether continues to outperform and amaze, I suspect the poorly articulated “thought pieces” about why Ethereum is so bad have only begun. You’d think a blockchain that does far more than currency would be embraced, but that does not appear to be the case.

I would describe the reaction so far to Ethereum’s runaway success in 2016 as “bitter,” not congratulatory.

The Bitcoin community has some work to do - on itself, on its image, and on its manners.

 Full disclosure: Not financial advice, provided for educational purposes only. Not intended as a recommendation to buy or sell any cryptocurrency or asset. At time of publication, I do hold some bitcoins and ethers in my long term portfolio.