Inside the Ethereum Wartime Offensive with Gitcoin Founder Kevin Owocki

In a space known for constant innovation and shifting narratives, Ethereum remains the cornerstone of the decentralized future. Yet, as Kevin Owocki, founder of Gitcoin and author of How to DAO: Mastering the Future of Internet Coordination, shared on Coinage, the path forward is as much about staying the course as it is about evolving.

“Ethereum is in a place where it’s hitting the hard problems first because it’s the biggest ecosystem out there," Owocki said. "What you’re seeing is people who are dissatisfied... starting to revolt because Ethereum isn’t, in their opinion, scaling fast enough."

This week, VC firm Paradigm joined the chorus of constituents calling out Ethereum's need to pick up the pace with delivering on its roadmap. Notably, President Trump opted to launch his $TRUMP memecoin on Solana. As Owocki pointed out, the Trump-aligned World Liberty Financial Defi project is building on Ethereum. But still, even he feels the allure of Solana’s streamlined approach, describing it easily in the same way Solana maxis do: “trying to be a decentralized Nasdaq or Nasdaq onchain.”

In contrast, Ethereum’s modular blockchain thesis, centered on Layer-2 scaling, offers a more robust yet complex narrative. “I think Ethereum equals the mainnet, but also all of the Layer 2s that are built on top of it," he said. "The issue is that it’s just a more complicated story to tell.”

Despite these complexities, Owocki expressed confidence in Ethereum’s long-term strategy. “We’re staying the course on Layer-2 scaling and the modular blockchain thesis. Maybe that means giving up a little market share in the short term, but I think medium and long-term, Ethereum is going to grow and scale and be really, really successful.”

While Ethereum’s journey is fraught with challenges, Owocki remains optimistic as the Ethereum community launches a new entity, Ethearalize, to foster relations with Wall Street. As Pantera Capital Portfolio Manager Cosmo Jiang recently told us — more institutional investors seem to be gravitating to Solana. Etherealize is looking to combat that with an education offensive.

“When we talk to… large bank wirehouses… 90, 95% of their conversations are about Bitcoin. But the next most talked about token is Solana,” he observed.

Owocki nonetheless sees a pivotal shift on the horizon — not at the protocol layer, but at the social and application layers. “As blockchains go more mainstream, we can’t count on people actually caring about the difference between the types of block space they’re consuming. What we’re going to see is a pivot... from ideological rigor around decentralization to utility maximization,” he said.

This focus on utility is central to Owocki’s vision for Ethereum’s success. “The path I see forward for Ethereum... is building world-class applications that help people do things they could never do before, powered by Ethereum.” Public goods funding, DeFi, and DAOs remain at the heart of this vision. “DAOs are here to stay, and we’re going to be using them to coordinate in the 21st century around some of the most important social causes... and also silly memes like Dogecoin,” Owocki noted with a smile.

His new book highlights how DAOs of all kinds are building with a core ethos of Ethereum in mind and decentralizing power across communities with shared interests. He highlighted Maker DAO and their stablecoin DAI as one leading example — along with praise for us here at Coinage as the leading community-owned Web3 outlet.

"I think you're doing great work in this space, not only covering the space, but also practicing it yourself with what you're doing at Coinage," he said.

Owocki’s belief in Ethereum’s developer community is unwavering. “The pace of innovation is going to continue to grow exponentially in the Ethereum ecosystem. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” he said, emphasizing the unparalleled open-source IP built on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

As Ethereum navigates this pivotal moment, Owocki called for collective action. “This is a decentralized ecosystem, and what we really need is for everyone... to step up and provide their talents to make Ethereum successful. The wartime leader we need is you,” he said, echoing the title of his recent article.

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