Etherealize CEO Critiques Wall Street's Private Blockchains as a "Race to the Bottom"

Vivek Raman, the co-founder and CEO of Etherealize, has voiced significant concerns over Wall Street's growing interest in private blockchains that restrict user access. In a recent interview, he described these consortium networks as detrimental, arguing they are fragmenting liquidity and reversing the progress blockchain technology aimed to achieve by creating interconnected systems.

Raman criticized the rise of these isolated projects, labeling the trend a "race to the bottom." He pointed out that such closed systems lack interoperability and hinder liquidity concentration, which are two core benefits of blockchain technology.

Instead, Etherealize promotes the use of Ethereum as an open foundational layer for institutional users. Raman insists that privacy and access limitations should be implemented atop public infrastructure, either at the application level or through Layer 2 solutions, rather than developing separate, closed networks. He compared Ethereum's role to that of HTTP, with additional privacy layers akin to HTTPS.

Recent examples of these "closed" systems include the Canton Network by Digital Asset, Arc from Circle, and Tempo from Stripe. Raman referred to this trend as "consortium chains 2.0," recalling past initiatives like the interbank project R3 and the Hyperledger corporate ecosystem, both of which struggled to gain traction since their promotion in 2016.

"We firmly believe and have always maintained that a global, open permissionless infrastructure is necessary as a foundational layer," Raman stated. He also noted that traditional financial institutions have started integrating Ethereum-based solutions into their operations as of June.