Can Ethereum, the second foundation, save the price of Ethereum: native? The Ethereum Second Foundation, officially known as Ethlabs and launched on June 22nd, is essentially a non-profit research and development laboratory. The members mainly consist of five core researchers from EF, Ansgar Dietrich serving as executive director, and Bitmine, SharpLink, and Consensys founder Joe Lubin providing funding behind the scenes. The entire foundation mainly studies the protocol layer, revolving around settlement speed and expansion. EF has seen many people leave this year, including eight to ten core researchers and executives. In March, they even released a manifesto stating that I am a neutral guardian and not responsible for product development. Don't blame me for market fluctuations. Core development costs 30 million US dollars per year, and EF's treasury itself is ETH. As the coin price drops, the amount of money that can be spent decreases, and there is no money to pay researchers' salaries, so talent cannot be retained. Ethlabs has no shortage of people or money. Bitmine alone holds over 5 million ETH, and the interest is enough for research and development expenses. But even if Ethlabs takes full control, it's still too early to say how to save the ETH situation. After upgrading to blob in Cancun in 2024, L2's data congestion on the mainnet is basically equivalent to prostitution, and the amount of destruction on the mainnet is directly reduced by nearly 70%. The story of ETH becoming more deflationary as it is used is actually that it is currently experiencing micro inflation. Although on chain activities are active, the problem is that these transaction fees and MEVs are all in the pocket of the L2 sorter itself, and have nothing to do with ETH holders. The root cause of ETH's two-year decline lies here. I feel uncertain about Ethlabs changing fundamentally. The most mainstream way to bring ETH prices back is based sorting, where L1 validators sort L2 and cut back a portion of the sorting fees and MEVs that were originally taken away by L2. In addition, there is a minimum price for blob data and MEV destruction. But either way, it's not enough to rely solely on a research institute to publish a paper, all of which require revenue diversion from L2. This is a tough battle at the governance level that cannot be clarified in a few years. Until today, not a mainstream L2 company has announced their intention to implement based sorting. At most, the laboratory can write research and shout twice in the field, and it is unlikely that they can force Arbitrarum and Base to spit out the fat meat of the sorter. Even more heart wrenching is that EF's chief researcher Justin Drake has already publicly stated that in the long run, if L1 competes with others for MEV, it is likely to be a waste of effort. What's even more uncomfortable is that Ethlabs works in the opposite direction. It focuses on expanding capacity and making settlements cheaper, which is the old strategy of Ethereum to exchange cheap blob for market share. The network has grown, but L1 destruction has not made progress. I have also halved my ETH, but objectively speaking, I cannot rely too much on this second foundation. The point I've been struggling with lately is whether or not to directly switch to BTC at the bottom of ETH in full