Anyone learning about the Ethereum blockchain over the past few months will have heard about the many incredible qualities of Ethereum such as:

Ethereum is a consensus network

Transactions are immutable

Your money is safe, it’s decentralized

Ethereum is claimed to be a decentralized consensus network with immutable transactions, but the facts show otherwise and this is a big problem:

[3:43:01 AM] Vitalik Buterin: ok can you guys stop trading

[3:43:05 AM] Tristan D’Agosta: Okay

Where’s the community consensus that Ethereum trading should cease because “The DAO” got hacked? There is none, a single individual — the leader of the Ethereum Foundation asks for trading to cease, and it does.

“The DAO” — is a decentralized application that sits “on top” of the Ethereum network, and in essence it has nothing to do with the Ethereum network, except it does:

Because the people behind the creation of “The DAO” software are “close friends” of the Ethereum Foundation, and get “special treatment”.

Why should trading cease just because a single app fails?

It shouldn’t.

Why should a hard fork occur just because a single app fails?

It shouldn’t.

Why should the entire network be affected when an app fails?

It shouldn’t.

There are lots of apps in Android and Apple’s app stores, and very often this goes wrong and apps get pulled, but do they shut down the entire shop just because something went wrong? Hell no.

“The DAO” was an app, it went wrong and it should be allowed to die.

When a branch of Bank of America gets robbed the entire network of banks does not shut down, trading does not cease. Life goes on.

The Ethereum community needs to ask a serious question:

Should anyone have the power to shut down trading when an app fails?

[3:43:01 AM] Vitalik Buterin: ok can you guys stop trading

[3:43:05 AM] Tristan D’Agosta: Okay

Tristan D’Agosta is founder of the Poloniex exchange.

Vitalik Buterin is founder of Ethereum.

In my personal opinion, hell no.

People bought into the Ethereum blockchain believing in “Immutability”, “Decentralization” and “Network consenus” — yet “one person” can flip a switch when their buddy’s app goes wrong. This is not right and it undermines the value of what Ethereum is supposed to stand for.

Hard fork the entire network because of one failed app?

Unbelieveable. Things need to change, in my opinion this is bad management at best and fraud and collusion between Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Foundation, slock.it and Stephan Tual at worst.

Article by:

Adam Sculthorpe, Co-Founder of PatrolX

Disclosure: I am an investor in both “The DAO” and “Ethereum”, and at the time of this post hold positions in both.

Opinions are my own, and have nothing to do with PatrolX

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