Ethereum stands at a crossroads. Despite recent price surges and long-standing developer dominance, something deeper is missing—a unifying force to propel ETH into the future as not just a smart contract platform, but a true monetary asset. In this week’s special episode of Bankless Takes, Ryan and David sit down for a long-overdue sync and lay out complementary, and at times divergent, visions for how ETH wins.
A Call for ETH Maximalism
Ryan returns from hiatus with renewed conviction: Ethereum must embrace a memetic reawakening. His first pillar is ETH maximalism—not the toxic kind, but a belief-driven, unapologetic support for ETH the asset. Without ETH as a strong monetary foundation, there is no DeFi, no sovereign finance, no censorship-resistant property rights. He argues that ETH must be marketed, memed, and evangelized with the same fervor as Bitcoin—because it’s not just a utility token; it’s programmable digital gold with yield.
Ethereum’s culture, however, has been reluctant to embrace wealth creation or promote ETH’s price performance. Ryan challenges this aversion and reframes ETH’s value as integral to the ecosystem’s integrity. “A strong ETH means a strong Ethereum,” he insists.
Rebuilding Ethereum’s Product Stack
David counters not in disagreement, but with an orthogonal view: Ethereum must reorient its roadmap to restore the power and gravity of the Layer 1. His framework—a “Maslow’s hierarchy of Ethereum development”—places the L1 as the bedrock, with devs, apps, users, L2s, and finally ETH the asset stacked above it. Somewhere along the way, Ethereum skipped crucial steps by jumping straight to L2s, severing the feedback loops that once made it the undisputed economic hub of crypto.
David argues for scaling the L1, building out interop standards, and fostering base/native rollups that tightly integrate into Ethereum—not just technically, but economically. “Layer 2s today are like NATO allies—not fully aligned states,” he explains. To win, Ethereum needs a union—an “interstate” system where users, assets, and value move seamlessly.
Nationalism, Not Just Maximalism
In his second article, Ryan introduces the analogy of Ethereum as a network state. Drawing on American history, he likens the current Ethereum ecosystem to the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation: loosely affiliated, economically fragmented, and struggling to coordinate. The answer? A new Constitution—a unifying economic and governance protocol that binds L2s to the Ethereum state through shared incentives, currency (ETH), and purpose.
This nationalism, he clarifies, isn’t exclusionary—it’s about economic alignment. L2s should hold ETH in treasuries, settle in ETH, and contribute to its memetic and financial strength. Base and native rollups are the blueprint for this kind of alignment. “Every chain that chooses ETH should feel like it’s part of one indivisible republic,” Ryan says.
The Path Forward
Both Ryan and David converge on the idea that Ethereum’s winning move isn’t to copy Bitcoin, nor to compete in Solana’s speed race. It’s to lean into its uniqueness: a deeply programmable, censorship-resistant, economically vibrant base layer—and a native currency that reflects and amplifies that.
The strategy? Walk and chew gum. Talk about ETH the asset with pride. Scale Ethereum L1 aggressively. Pull devs, users, and liquidity back to the hub. And build the infrastructure and narratives that bind it all together.
Ethereum’s vision is still the most ambitious in crypto—and maybe even the most valuable. But it needs coordination, conviction, and clarity to reach it.