on ETH security, issuance, supply, and asset value: in order to guarantee its security, Ethereum continually issues new ETH to secure the network, and also burns some of that ETH based on how much the network is used (via fees which are paid by transaction submitters and burned). the more Ethereum is used, the more ETH is burned. at times, this can exceed the amount of ETH which is issued by the network for its ecurity but beyond this, Ethereum network consensus requires a sort of informal agreement between network operators (who must stake ETH) and network users (many of whom hold ETH) stakers can operate the network, but users can decide which fork of the network is valid so to think about ETH supply and the value of ETH as a hard asset, you have to ask what these incentives are for each of these parties to either promote or diminish the value of ETH, and how supply might fit into this stakers have a clear incentive to to make ETH more valuable. they have a clear disincentive against taking actions which make ETH less valuable, as they will destroy the value of their stake users on balance also have an incentive for ETH to become more valuable, because they may hold it or other assets on the network, and they benefit from a rising ETH price which makes the financial network more valuable overall ergo, the trend in ETH price/value is very likely to be UP over the longterm, assuming the network continues to grow this also gives ETH one of the lowest sustainable new issuance rates of any L1 asset in crypto (if not THE lowest). as of now and for a while, it is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than how much BTC has been issued since Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake almost 3 years ago and imo, it beats the hell out of a hardcap number decided 17 years ago with no real plan for how to secure the network once that number is reached i actually TradFi will come to understand these dynamics very easily now that they're arriving. until they do, this is alpha