‘Fundamentally Broken’: Ethereum Faces Harsh Critique from Tech Expert

• Evan Cheng, CEO of Mysten Labs, highlighted how Ethereum’s reliance on a few dominant staking pools weakens its decentralization.
• Mysten Labs’ co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun supported Cheng’s claims, stating this perspective influenced Sui Network’s decision to avoid EVM compatibility.

Blockchain network Ethereum faces strong criticism over the design of its “Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).” Evan Cheng, a tech expert and CEO of Mysten Labs, stated that the EVM design is “fundamentally broken”. Cheng is so critical of the design that he thinks that the only way to fix it is by “shooting it in the head and start over”.

Previously, Evan Cheng served in key roles at Apple and was the head of research and development at Novi. Besides, he was also the Technical Director at Meta and now leads the development of the Sui Network (SUI), an Ethereum (ETH) competitor.

Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun has recently shared a video wherein CEO Cheng explains why the EVM design is broken. At the same time, Abiodun backed his colleague, stating that this was the reason they “never prioritized EVM compatibility when building Sui.”

Interestingly, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has seen strong adoption within the crypto industry. However, apart from the Mysten Labs executives, other crypto experts have also agreed with these statements.

Most tech debt can be paid off, but a broken design is a dead end.

This is why we never prioritized EVM compatibility when building Sui.

EVM is a broken design and it’s time for this industry to move beyond dead-end designs. pic.twitter.com/l8JMcQW33V

— Adeniyi.sui (@EmanAbio) January 8, 2025

What’s Broken About the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Design?

Evan Cheng started by criticizing the concept of the “Blockchain Trilemma” in Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), adding that it “has no mathematical backing and is based on flawed design.”

Furthermore, he highlighted the concentration of Ethereum’s validating power within a few staking pools that undermine the network’s decentralization capabilities. As per Cheng, this issue challenges the widely celebrated “Blockchain Trilemma” often championed by EVM supporters.

Cheng elaborated on this point, stating that the example of staking pool dominance demonstrates the flawed science and misunderstanding behind EVM proponents’ reliance on the trilemma to position Ethereum as the most decentralized layer-one blockchain.

The expert elaborates that while “technical debts” can typically be addressed over time, Ethereum faces a more fundamental challenge: a “design-level technical debt.” He further said:

The only way to do it, to solve the problem, is shooting it in the head and move on from it. But, you already have so many people, companies, users, everybody, depending on it. So, even if you want to do it, it is a very difficult path.

The Ethereum price has continued to face strong selling and has underperformed other altcoins in the recent bull run. Additionally, the recent selloff coming from the Ethereum Foundation has led to negative sentiment around the world’s largest altcoin, per the CNF report.