Blockstream's Adam Back Slams Ethereum as a Ponzi-Scheme

Back likened such schemes to altcoins Ethereum, Ripple and Stellar, along with 'Dan Larmer', which was presumably a reference to Bitshares and Steem creator Dan Larimer.

Back's swipe came in a dialogue with TV journalist Layah Heilpern.

She asked whether he thought Ethereum was a scam or if it added value to the ecosystem in terms of DApps.

"Well 70% pre-mined says it all. Which would you say is a bigger scam, Ripple or Ethereum."

Adam Back August 5, 2020 Raging against ETHIt is not the first time that the HashCash proof-of-work inventor has taken a swing at Ethereum.

In another tweet exchange in November last year, he compared Ethereum to the now-defunct biotech startup Theranos, which created a fake medical machine.

The computer scientist has been a Bitcoiner from the beginning and has been linked with Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto several times.

It's not difficult to imagine there could be a link between the rapid rise of the Ethereum price this month amid excitement over DeFi project, and a revival of crypto tribalism from Bitcoin true believers.

The momentum for Ethereum has been driven by the hope that the long-awaited first phase of the ETH 2.0 shift to proof-of-stake consensus will be launched within months.

If it's successful, Ethereum will eventually be able to process exponentially more transactions than Bitcoin.