Ethereum Co-Founder Says Crypto Unstoppable, Part Of New System

Joe Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and CEO of ConsenSys spoke at ETHDenver in early March and said that he thinks crypto is picking up speed and has a bright future.

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Lubin On The Concept Of Supercycles

Lubin introduced the idea of “supercycles,” including both a generational one, inspired by Strauss and Howe’s generational theory, and a monetary supercycle.

The CEO suggested that humanity is at the end of a generational supercycle, poised for a new system of the world, paralleled by the culmination of a monetary supercycle marked by unsustainable debt levels and the breakdown of traditional financial systems.

We are in this 4th generation, this 4th turning, and we’re ready for a new system of the world.

Joe Lubin

The Emergence of Decentralised Trust

The shift from centralised to decentralised trust forms the crux of Lubin’s argument. He credits Satoshi Nakamoto with inventing decentralised trust, contrasting it with millennia of centralised, top-down control.

Satoshi invented decentralized trust as opposed to centralized trust. We’ve never seen decentralized trust on the planet before.

Joe Lubin

According to Lubin, this innovation allows for transparent, open-access databases and programmable money, fundamentally altering how systems of the world could operate by relying on decentralised consensus over traditional intermediaries.

The electricity in the air is significant because we’re on the other side of an inflection point where… the floodgates are open and there’s an enormous amount of value now piling into the crypto ecosystem.

Joe Lubin

The Transition to a Crypto-Dominant Future With ETFs

And that value comes in the form of ETFs, a point host and Axios reporter Crystal Kim wanted to touch on. Asked whether Bitcoin ETFs and eventually Ethereum ETFs are a good thing, Lubin said the crypto space is currently at an inflection point, buoyed by regulatory decisions like the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the US.

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This transition, he argued, is accelerating the integration of decentralisation into mainstream finance, making it increasingly difficult for regulators to control. 

He also hinted at the potential for an Ethereum ETF, while advocating for the intrinsic value of Ether in enabling participation and labour within the Ethereum protocol, suggesting a preference for decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions over centralised financial products like ETFs. 

But Lubin doesn’t believe the Ethereum ETF will come easy.

I do feel like the SEC is going to do what they can to drag their feet on this because Bitcoin in centralized financial instruments is good… It’s not so good because it’s now in a centralized instrument.

Joe Lubin