# Ethereum 28 Hacker News commenters recommended Ethereum and 22 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended as a programmable, decentralized network that uses little energy since proof of stake. Critics most often cite high transaction costs and the DAO hard fork. ## Why people recommend it - Low energy use since proof of stake (7 comments): "Ethereum, for all its other faults, has shown that burning lots of electricity is not necessary for cryptocurrencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740341)) "Ethereum's blockchain consumes less energy, is more decentralized, it's a lot more resistent to any form of attack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846453)) "Ethereum has been doing real proof of stake ... it's seemingly cheap, effective, and robust." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48012422)) - Programmable platform for building applications (5 comments): "there's a lot of stuff I've wanted to try building on Ethereum et al that I just haven't done because I can't get over the hurdle of paying transaction costs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492584)) "ethereum created a neutral, stable, secure cheap and transparent programmable financial platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48648192)) "Ethereum is a decentralized programmable chain, a new kind global public institution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194330)) - Decentralized and hard to stop (4 comments): "Decentralized public chains, especially Ethereum, offer new kinds of credible commitments that are strong enough to bind corporations and governments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175312)) "Ethereum's blockchain consumes less energy, is more decentralized, it's a lot more resistent to any form of attack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846453)) "was designed to allow anybody to run a validator or even a full node out of modest hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49019998)) - Reliable operation over many years (4 comments): "Their continued execution, including successfully switching engines mid-flight (The Merge), has earned them a bit of reprieve" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47693867)) "transactions are cheaper, more reliable and anybody can still participate and build on it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46196128)) "BTC and ETH have just chugged along as they actually have an underlying use case" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47313050)) ## What people warn about - Rule changes after the DAO hack (5 comments): "When a major incident happens on Bitcoin or Ethereum – for example, the DAO hack – they had to resort to a hard fork." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504862)) "Ethereum lost all credibility with that fork. You can't trust a system/currency that changes the rules like that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47688647)) "rewrote the rules of their system when a bug was found in the first popular smart contract, the DAO" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48645642)) - Centralization concerns despite decentralization claims (3 comments): "With etherium, you inherit even more centralization due to the nature of the scripting system and PoS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46179935)) "Ethereum is not decentralzied at all, because that is a core property of proof-of-stake" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846596)) "Ethereum is so good at being distributed than it's decentralized." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203161)) - Little real use beyond speculation (3 comments): "Smart-contracts and NFTs failed to create any meaningful value or have any lasting economic impact" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48886644)) "If I can solve that problem with another simpler, older technology it doesn't count as useful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194969)) "Neither ETH nor BTC are being utilised for anything other than "Money goes in, price goes up"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46185389)) - High transaction fees (2 comments): "there's a lot of stuff I've wanted to try building on Ethereum et al that I just haven't done because I can't get over the hurdle of paying transaction costs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492584)) "the gas fees made cost of doing anything real too costly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195012)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Monero (XMR)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/monero.md): 102 recommend - [Zcash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zcash.md): 10 recommend - [Solana](https://hackerapproved.com/p/solana.md): 7 recommend - [Base](https://hackerapproved.com/p/base.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Ethereum", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ethereum/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).