The legal dispute highlights some of the bad blood that remains from the early days of one of the world’s largest crypto platforms. | Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
12/19/2022 05:07 PM EST
A legal fight over the software infrastructure behind a large portion of crypto activity is heating up with a new Swiss court ruling seen first by POLITICO.
The fight pits billionaire Joe Lubin, considered a de facto co-founder of Ethereum, against a group of his former employees at ConsenSys AG, a firm that was central to the development of the second-oldest blockchain network.
While at one level the court battle comes down to a squabble over corporate governance and the value of some key assets, it can also be seen as emblematic of a bigger question shaping the world that crypto and Web3 evangelists hope to build: Should blockchain systems embrace existing corporate and government structures, or maximize their independence from them?
In the crypto world, a more pragmatic and business-minded camp sees the involvement of big banks and government entities as validation of the technology and a prerequisite for achieving its potential. Crypto purists, on the other hand, distrust those established players, and see their arrival as a threat to the original promise of the blockchain — by, for example, collecting user data or ensuring compliance with government regulations that the purists consider unjust.
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