The Chopping Block: Ethereum's Identity Crisis, Apostates Speak Out, and Is ETH the Microsoft of Crypto?

Unchained

Laura Shin

Tech News, Business News, News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ethereum's midlife crisis hits the podcast as ex-Bankless and ConsenSys insiders unpack ETH's talent exodus, identity spiral, "Microsoft" future, EF shake-ups, and the Solana contender play-all with spicy takes on airdrops, real dev stats, and blockchain adoption drama. Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, it's an Ethereum apostasy spectacular: we're joined by David Hoffman and Max Resnick, who hit the confessional booth to explain why they've left the church of Ethereum. We kick off with David's viral "ETH is money" post-mortem: why he finally sold, and whether ETH can escape its spot on the yield farm for good. Max jumps in with an OG technologist's view on EF's internal struggles, talent flight, and the move-slow, break-nothing philosophy now gripping Ethereum's core. Is the EF just ossifying—or is it devolving into the "Microsoft of crypto"? From there, the hosts dissect the "second foundation" meme, why Twitter doomers might not matter for the ETH price, and whether Solana has stolen the next generation of devs. Max throws down on Solana's quantum future while the group takes barstool shots at metrics, narratives, and the never-ending "Ethereum is for boomers" debate. Whether you're a ride-or-die Etherean or just here for the schadenfreude, let's get into it. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹David Hoffman reveals why he sold all his ETH and stepped down from the "ETH is money" pulpit 🔹Max Resnick on Ethereum's talent drain, EF's slow tech culture, and missing the Wall Street on-chain boat 🔹Why the Ethereum Foundation's leadership shuffle triggered so much existential dread 🔹The "Ethereum is Microsoft" thesis: ossification, enterprise comfort, and is that a bad thing? 🔹Are airdrops, stablecoin and NFT on-chain metrics just smoke and mirrors? 🔹Developer mindshare —did Solana peak? Has ETH truly lost the next-gen builders? 🔹Will a new "Number Go Up Foundation" for Ethereum change anything? 🔹Solana's post-quantum roadmap: why Max thinks ETH is over-complicating the problem 🔹What happens if Ethereum stops shipping upgrades —can it just coast Lindy-style? 🔹Is the future of crypto "strong" vs. "weak" crypto, and is ETH now firmly a boomer chain? Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ David Hoffman, Co-Founder at Bankless ⭐️ Max Resnick, Lead Economist at Anza “Why I Sold My ETH” by David Hoffman https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059371247163613489 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:12 Why David Sold ETH 05:26 ETH Momentum and Value Capture 07:38 Ethereum Foundation Shakeups 10:18 Max on Tech and Identity Crisis 15:57 Talent Drain and New Blood 19:29 Strong vs Weak Crypto Debate 25:28 Ethereum as Microsoft 30:02 Second Foundation Idea 35:43 Microsoft Era Ethereum 38:20 EF Money Runs Out 42:02 Utility Asset Narrative 46:07 Etherealize Enterprise Push 48:04 Bitcoin Has Saylor 53:32 Ethereum Narrative Whiplash 55:51 Solana As The Yang 58:15 Post Quantum Solana Roadmap Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	That's such a uninspiring story to someone who's 19. Are you kidding me? You're telling me that this Korean guy in a suit who's like telling me the number go up is like the most impressive thing you can do? Like, why would you even bother? I'm just saying, like, it doesn't seem like a very inspiring message. No offense. Like, tell me, this is not offense to you. You're selling the olds, you know. Not a dividend. It's a tale of two Kwan.
0:23.8	Now, your losses are on someone else's balance. Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways. Unnamed to trading firms who are very involved.olic.eat is the ultimate policy. D5 protocols are the antidote to this problem.
0:39.2	Hello, everybody. Welcome to Chopping Block.
0:43.7	Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider perspective on the crypto topics of the day.
0:46.8	Quick intro is first you got Tom, the Defy Maven, and Master of Memes.
0:47.9	Hello, everyone.
0:51.4	Next to get Tarun, Gigabrain, and Grand Puba at Gauntlet.
0:52.6	Yo.
0:54.9	Joining us today, we've got a double feature.
1:00.8	First, we've got David, the Cryptoconisour and Tsar of Superstate.
1:02.0	Welcome back, David.
1:04.4	It's been a while since we've had you on the show.
1:05.3	People have been missing you.
1:07.1	Thanks for joining us.
1:12.5	So we're actually, we're specifically doing an Ethereum apostasy episode. And so we've got Max Resnick joining us. So we're actually, we're specifically doing an Ethereum apostasy episode. And so we've got Max Resnick joining us once again on the show, the OG Ethereum atheist. Welcome back, Max.
1:19.4	Thanks, thanks. Good to be back. Well, I guess this is my first time actually, but back talking about
1:24.7	the topic everybody wants to know about. We've had you. Shouldn't you on when you were talking shit about when you first transitioned away from Salana. I'm pretty sure to Salana. I'm pretty sure we did. Oh, really? We did. You're not remembering, but trust me, our guests remember. Or the audience remembers. The audience remembers. I'd like to decline the identity of Ethereum apostate.
1:45.6	I still like Ethereum. Okay. We'll be going through. We'll be going through this. We'll be going through this. Okay. Anyway, I'm a seed that head of hype man a dragonfly. We're at least here investors in crypto, but I want to caveat that nothing we say here is investment advice, legal advice, or even life advice. Please each other and block that X, Y, Z for more disclosures. Okay, so David, let me refine that a little bit.
2:01.7	You're an eth apostate, not necessarily in the theorem of apostate. please you chopin block that xyz for more disclosures okay so david let me refine that a little bit you're
2:01.8	an ethopostate not necessarily in the theorem of apostate but you've been gone you've gone viral
2:06.9	quite recently there's been a string of departures from the eF there's been a lot of drama around how is
2:12.3	eth the asset doing um you know there's been there's been all this back and forth you know max I think you were the, maybe the OG in the space to turn your back on Ethereum. You originally were a very active and loud proponent of the Ethereum ecosystem. You defected over to Solana. David, you've made the waves. Wait, wait, wait, wait. How could you say Max's first? That Suzu tweet predates Max?
	...

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