DCinvestor Challenges "Ethereum Alignment" as Vague, Proposes Three Concrete Criteria

A prominent voice in the Ethereum community, known as DCinvestor, has publicly dismissed the term "Ethereum alignment" as "absolutely nothing," urging its removal from vocabulary due to its perceived lack of concrete meaning. In a recent social media post, DCinvestor articulated a strong critique of the phrase, stating, "it’s one of the worst terms we’ve ever created." This sentiment highlights an ongoing debate within the Ethereum ecosystem regarding the true nature of loyalty and contribution to the network.

DCinvestor, a well-known commentator on Ethereum and decentralized finance (DeFi), proposed three specific criteria that he believes genuinely define alignment. These include projects being "secured by Ethereum, with L1 providing certain guarantees on L2," emphasizing the foundational security role of the mainnet. Furthermore, aligned projects should actively "use, scale, and promote utility and value to ETH as an asset," ensuring that Layer 2 solutions and other applications contribute directly to the economic strength of Ethereum's native cryptocurrency.

The third criterion put forth by DCinvestor is that projects must "meaningfully contribute tech back to Ethereum." This suggests a reciprocal relationship where innovations built on or alongside Ethereum should ultimately benefit the broader ecosystem through open-source contributions and shared development. He concluded that "anything outside of these 3 categories is simply a LARP," implying that projects not meeting these standards are merely pretending to be aligned.

This critique comes amidst broader discussions within the Ethereum community about defining and measuring alignment. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has also addressed the concept, seeking to make it more "legible" by decomposing it into specific, measurable properties. Buterin's framework includes values alignment (e.g., open source, decentralization, public goods support), technological alignment (e.g., open standards, interoperability), and economic alignment (e.g., using ETH as a token). The push for clearer definitions underscores a collective effort to ensure that the diverse array of projects building on Ethereum contributes to a unified and robust ecosystem, rather than fragmented, self-serving initiatives.