Token2024: Ava Labs CEO says Avalanche was 'never ever' marketed as ETH killer

Emin Gün Sirer of Ava Labs says Avalanche was never marketed as an “Ethereum killer,” stressing though its ability to deploy independent blockchains, unlike Ethereum.

The head of Ava Labs, Emin Gün Sirer, says Avalanche “was never ever” designed to be an “Ethereum killer,” adding that the definition was developed by marketing managers at Consensys, a blockchain tech firm founded by Joseph Lubin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Addressing the misconception at the Token2049 conference, Sirer noted that Avalanche “has always been complimentary to Ethereum.”

“We never ever marketed Avalanche as an Ethereum killer. That is a phrase that some marketing people at Consensys actually use to elevate Ethereum. Weve always been complimentary to Ethereum.”

Emin Gün Sirer

While acknowledging Ethereum‘s role in the blockchain ecosystem, Sirer highlighted Avalanche’s unique capability to deploy independent blockchains with different rules, a feature he added Ethereum “fundamentally is incapable of.”

“Ethereum is a single-chain system [and] Avalanche is a multi-chain system. We can do many more things that they cant do. And one of the most important ones is we allow other people to launch their own blockchains according to their own rules. This is something that Ethereum just fundamentally is incapable of.”

Emin Gün Sirer

(Left-to-right) Jasen Qureshi from DragonFly, Raj Gokal from Solana, Emin Gün Sirer from Ava Labs, Mustafa al Bassam from Celestia, Adeniyi Abiodun from Mysten Labs, Keone Hon from Monad | Source: crypto.news

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Addressing competition, Sirer emphasized Avalanche‘s consensus protocols, noting their superior speed compared to Ethereum’s, noting that Avalanches protocol “puts us in a different game.”

“My competition is with the Wall Street. My competition is not with my good friends in the Ethereum community, of which Im a part still.”

Emin Gün Sirer

Reiterating Avalanche‘s mission, Sirer underscored the platform’s commitment to advancing blockchain technology by “bringing new tokens, new assets into the blockchain space.”

In August 2022, the whistleblower website Crypto Leaks published an extensive expose alleging that Ava Labs paid the crypto-focused law firm Freedman Roche in tokens and equity to file a series of class-action lawsuits against competitors. At the time, Sirer dismissed the claims as “conspiracy theory nonsense,” emphasizing that the firm “would never engage in the unlawful, unethical and just plain wrong behavior claimed in these self-serving videos and inflammatory article.”