Erik Voorhees: “ETH is still the king, and I don’t see it being dethroned"
The founder of ShapeShift and Venice AI is asked if Ethereum was a “sustainable ecosystem.” He replies:
“I think [Ethereum] is more than sustainable. I think it is the clear winner of the smart contract innovation. It actually wasn’t the first mover in smart contracts, but it was the first one to achieve any sort of scale with smart contracts. What’s most important about Ethereum isn’t so much the first-mover advantage as much as it is the network effect it has had since it was released.”
Erik continues:
“I think both Bitcoin and Ethereum have achieved a network effect that is close to unassailable. People have gotten distracted with some of these other L1s, but if you look at metrics like where the developers are and where stablecoin volumes are, these are hard to fake metrics that are very important. They’ve always been predominantly on Ethereum. It’s not even close. I’m glad that other people tried to build L1s. The process of innovation and competition is really important. But ETH is still the king, and I don’t see it being dethroned. It has had various scaling challenges — the patchwork of L2s and the UX problems between them sucks. But I have a suspicion that Base is going to end up becoming the predominant L2 on top of the predominant L1 of ETH and that vertical is going to be very powerful and very strong. So yes, I’m always bullish on ETH in the same way I’m always bullish on Bitcoin.”
However, Erik warns that if Base loses its permissionlessness it “will flounder and deserves to die”:
“Base has designed things very well. It has gotten a lot of adoption and very quickly became the major L2 even though it was not the first mover. I think it’s gaining a network effect pretty quickly. It obviously has a very powerful corporate ally in Coinbase, and to the degree that Coinbase does not abuse that privilege, that’s a very good privilege. Abuse here means: if Coinbase tries to exert control over base such that it loses its permissionlessness, then it will flounder and deserves to die. But Coinbase has been a very good actor in this regard, and they deserve a lot of credit for demonstrating the principles of decentralization and permissionless innovation in several parts of what they do. Obviously the centralized exchange is not that, but it’s not trying to be either.”
Source: @CoinDesk (Dec 2025)
If one day you become rich, remember these ten things:
1. Don't tell anyone, including your parents.
2. Pay off all debts owed to friends, banks, and online lenders first.
3. Once the money reaches your account, don't rush to move it around. Let it sit for a while and think clearly.
4. Don't purchase a house immediately or rent in a higher neighborhood.
5. Don't rush to quit your job right away.
6. Don't acquire a car or luxury goods yet.
7. Don't go into business with friends, relatives, or classmates.
8. If you have children, do everything possible to prevent them from knowing you're rich.
9. Maintain the status quo. Act like nothing has changed.
10. Be cautious with your information and avoid sharing your situation with everyone.
Most people who come into money lose it all because they broke every one of these rules.
🔥 Các dự án lớn quản trị token multichain thủ công
(Manual Mint/Burn Re-allocation)
⚡️ Toàn mấy tên tuổi kinh điển 😎
1. USDT / USDC (stablecoins)
- Tether và Circle dùng manual reallocation hoàn toàn: Tether burn USDT trên Ethereum rồi mint trên Tron dựa trên demand data, quyết định bởi team nội bộ.
- Mô hình burn-and-mint đòi hỏi token issuer phải giữ quyền kiểm soát admin với mint rights trên tất cả các chains. Nếu governance structure yếu hoặc admin keys bị centralize, toàn bộ hệ thống trở thành single point of failure.
2. BNB (Binance)
- Token gốc trên BNB Chain, nhưng tồn tại dưới dạng wrapped/bridged trên ETH, BSC, Solana, v.v.
- Binance định kỳ thực hiện BNB Quarterly Burn, đây là quyết định thủ công từ team, dựa trên volume, không hoàn toàn tự động theo on-chain logic.
- Gnosis Safe multisig kiểm soát toàn bộ mint authority.
3. LayerZero OFT token model (nhiều dự án dùng)
- Dự án dùng Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard của LayerZero.
- Về kỹ thuật là burn-and-mint tự động khi user bridge, nhưng allocation cap per chain (max supply per chain) do admin multisig set thủ công.
- STG (Stargate), ZRO, nhiều DeFi tokens đều theo model này.
4. JOE (Trader Joe)
- Có mặt trên Avalanche, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, team dùng Gnosis Safe để quản lý mint authority trên từng chain.
- Khi expand sang chain mới, team vote DAO rồi thực thi thủ công: mint một lượng JOE trên chain mới, không tự động.
5. ARB (Arbitrum)
- ARB token mint ban đầu toàn bộ trên Arbitrum One, nhưng phân phối sang các chain/entity qua Arbitrum DAO governance vote + treasury multisig.
- Mỗi lần muốn reallocation (ví dụ: cấp ngân sách cho ecosystem grant), đều phải qua on-chain vote sau đó treasury multisig thực thi.
6. OP (Optimism)
- Tương tự Optimism Foundation kiểm soát một phần supply qua multisig.
- Allocate token sang Foundation, Retroactive Public Goods Funding, ecosystem partners đều qua manual governance vote.
7. SUI / APT (Sui / Aptos)
- Cả hai đều có token trên chain gốc nhưng wrapped version trên EVM chains được quản lý bởi foundation multisig.
- Mỗi lần muốn tăng wrapped supply trên ETH/BSC phải burn native + mint wrapped thủ công.
8. JUP (Jupiter, Solana)
- JUP nằm trên Solana native, nhưng khi expand sang chains khác qua Wormhole, treasury team kiểm soát mint authority thủ công.
9. CAKE (PancakeSwap)
- CAKE native trên BNB Chain nhưng có mặt trên Base, Arbitrum, Solana, Ethereum, zkSync, Linea, opBNB, Aptos, Polygon zkEVM. Tổng supply được cap ở 450M token trên tất cả các chain cộng lại. PancakeSwap.
- PancakeSwap dùng multisig cho tất cả các contract PancakeSwap, nghĩa là mọi mint/burn đều cần nhiều người ký.
- Khi CAKE được bridge sang chain khác, cơ chế burn-mint giữ tổng supply không đổi, nhưng allocation giữa các chain do team quyết định thủ công thông qua governance vote.
Còn nhiều vô kể...
—
⚡️ Tóm lại
Để làm một cơ chế mint/burn tự động không hề khó, vấn đề là toàn bộ Key phải để ở Server, điều này có nghĩa là gì? Rủi ro bị tấn công là cực kỳ lớn và hiện hữu.
Vậy, không phải cái gì "auto" cũng là auto xịn, auto đỉnh chóp kịch trần bay phấp phới đâu, mà là mạo hiểm không cần thiết.
Token muốn listing lên Binance hay Coinbase đều phải qua audit nghiêm ngặt, muốn làm bậy cũng khó và phải trả giá gần như tất cả.
Đừng dùng nông cạn của bản thân để đo đạc người khác 😁
Had a really in-depth convo with @pukerrainbrow. We touched on both sides of my crypto journey.
From personal:
- making more from $BTC than my own startup
- being a hack target as CEO
To strategic:
- how AI is merging with crypto
- why exchanges are evolving into #UEX
Felt more like a moment of reflection than a podcast.