Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin Says ETH Goes Beyond Bitcoin and Gold as a Store of Value
Key Takeaways
- •Joseph Lubin argued in a November 11 post on X that ETH could preserve value better than nation-state currencies and many other assets during a coming period of high inflation and economic volatility.
- •He placed ETH in the same non-debt-based monetary category as gold and Bitcoin while citing added features including censorship resistance, programmable transactions, collateral use, and Ethereum's hosting of what he called the bulk of stablecoin activity.
- •Lubin described ETH as disinflationary, attributing this to Ethereum's 2021 fee-burning mechanism, which removes part of every transaction fee from circulation and can push supply into deflationary territory during periods of heavy network activity.
- •He predicted ETH would become quantum-safe and AI-safe money by the end of 2027 or partway through 2028, a forecast his post did not support with technical specifics.
- •Lubin framed his thesis as contingent rather than guaranteed, noting that price appreciation would depend on adoption, network activity, and market demand, while claims such as Ethereum's stablecoin share can be checked against public onchain data.
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin — who also founded the blockchain software company ConsenSys — argues that ETH could emerge as a stronger store of value as inflation and economic volatility intensify. In a post on X on November 11, Lubin warned that nation-state currencies and many other assets could lose purchasing power during a period of heightened instability. He described gold and Bitcoin as established stores of value, but argued that ETH offers additional monetary and utility features on top of their shared non-debt design — including censorship resistance, programmable transactions, collateral use, and Ethereum's central role in stablecoin activity. Lubin also predicted that ETH would become quantum-safe and AI-safe money by the end of 2027 or partway through 2028, though his post provided no technical details supporting that forecast.
His post laid out the case directly:
Why ETH is the store of value for what's coming
We are almost certainly heading into a period of high inflation and extreme economic and social volatility. As inflation and risk erode the purchasing power of nation-state money and many other assets, it will matter more than ever…
Why Lubin Sees ETH as a Store of Value
Lubin's argument starts with ETH's monetary design. Like gold and Bitcoin, he said, ETH is not debt-based or credit-based money. He paired that point with Ethereum's resistance to censorship: according to Lubin, transactions on Ethereum's layer 1 cannot be blocked, whether they involve simple payments or complex decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Valid transactions are guaranteed to execute, he added, whether they move one dollar or billions, and he described the network as cheap and easy to use at any scale.
He also characterized ETH as disinflationary, noting that periods of high network activity can push its supply into deflationary territory. That dynamic stems from Ethereum's fee-burning mechanism introduced in 2021, which removes a portion of every transaction fee from circulation — a supply behavior he views as another reason ETH could preserve value over time. Lubin further argued that ETH is relatively inexpensive to hold and secure, a property that could matter to users seeking assets they can store and use across different market conditions. Even so, these characteristics do not guarantee that ETH's market price will rise.
Ethereum's Utility Could Reinforce the Monetary Case
Beyond scarcity, Lubin's thesis rests on Ethereum's expanding economic activity. He described ETH as useful across decentralized finance, stablecoins, and smart-contract-based business processes, and noted that Ethereum hosts what he called the bulk of stablecoin activity. Stablecoins — blockchain tokens typically pegged to fiat currencies such as the US dollar — record their supply on public ledgers, so his share-of-activity claim can be tracked against onchain data. He expects finance — and eventually other industries — to move more activity onchain, with stablecoins serving as payment money and units of account while ETH supports applications and collateral arrangements. As onchain activity grows, he suggested, stablecoins, DeFi, collateral, and smart contracts could all expand demand for ETH.
Collateral, he argued, becomes more powerful when the asset backing agreements can grow in value. That remains a thesis, not a guaranteed outcome for borrowers or investors.
Lubin also emphasized programmability, which lets developers attach logic to transactions. Smart contracts can automate agreements, payments, and business processes, and he tied that capability to a future economy involving both people and machine intelligence.
Privacy and transparency also featured in his argument. According to Lubin, Ethereum-based financial instruments can be public or private while remaining selectively disclosable and auditable. He cited tools including Railgun, stealth addresses, privacy pools, and zero-knowledge proofs. He expects Ethereum's base layer and its modular layer-2 networks — secondary networks that process transactions off the main chain while relying on Ethereum for security and settlement — to support a growing volume of high-value transactions and agreements.
Lubin's Central Argument
The central point of Lubin's post is that ETH is more than a scarce digital asset. He believes its monetary properties and Ethereum's utility could reinforce each other as onchain activity expands. Whether that translates into lasting price appreciation, however, will depend on adoption, network activity, and market demand — and his quantum-safety and AI-safety timeline remains a stated prediction without accompanying technical specifics. Two public reference points offer ways to follow the case over time: Ethereum's protocol upgrades proceed through a documented public proposal process, where any quantum-safety work would have to appear, and his stablecoin share claim can be checked against the same public onchain data.
