Viewpoint: The credible neutrality of BTC and ETH is defined by token distribution and transparency, governance relationships, and developer platforms.
David Marcus, former head of Facebook's stablecoin project, published a post refuting 1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino's claim that ETH is by no means neutral. In response, Nick Tomaino stated that credible neutrality can be defined from three aspects:
1. Token distribution and transparency: BTC has 0% internal allocation. Anyone can participate as a PoW miner, and the process is completely transparent. ETH has a 10% internal allocation and previously also used PoW mining. In contrast, Solana has 62% internal allocation, did not disclose token distribution and validators in its early days, and generally lacks transparency.
2. Governance relationships: Bitcoin pioneered the internet-native approach, while Ethereum is building an internet-native ecosystem together with the global community. Solana, on the other hand, is more like a "company token" and has participated in lobbying efforts in the United States.
3. Developer platform: Bitcoin does not have a robust developer platform, whereas Ethereum supports a wide range of important use cases (stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, prediction markets, decentralized social networks, etc.). Ethereum prioritizes providing a decentralized platform for developers and companies. Coinbase, Blackrock, Fidelity, Stripe, Kraken, Deutsche Bank, Sony, Visa, Polymarket, Uniswap, Aave, and Opensea are all building within the Ethereum ecosystem.