Recently, I have had some deep thoughts about the long-term development prospects of Ethereum. Although Ethereum is currently still a major player in the crypto assets market, its future direction may not be as optimistic as it appears on the surface.

First of all, the technology of Ethereum is completely open source. While this promotes innovation, it also means a lack of unique technological barriers. Any team with sufficient resources and technical capabilities can replicate or improve the functions of Ethereum.

Secondly, the governance model of Ethereum may have hidden risks. If large institutions accumulate enough ETH, they can dominate the voting process and influence the direction of the network's development. This trend of centralization contradicts the original intention of decentralization.

Moreover, while the staking mechanism provides holders with passive income, it may also lead to continuous pressure on prices. A large number of holders might continuously sell their staking rewards, which could impact the stability of the coin price in the long run.

As an infrastructure, Ethereum's development direction should be to improve efficiency and reduce costs. However, this also means that profit margins may be compressed to a relatively low level.

Considering these factors, I believe the price of Ethereum may face long-term downward pressure. However, at the same time, applications built on Ethereum may continue to thrive, just like Layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum (ARB).

Nevertheless, this does not mean that Ethereum is not a good trading target. For traders, price fluctuations themselves are opportunities. I share these views simply hoping to provide some people with different perspectives that may be helpful one day in the future. After all, in this wonderful world, every viewpoint can potentially inspire others.