Ethereum halted Glamsterdam hard-fork testing after a dangerous fee-recalculation bug exposed compatibility risks for smart contracts. The setback came as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued that ETH should be valued primarily as a store-of-value asset rather than through transaction-fee burns. He said Ethereum’s long-term proposition rests on survivability, decentralization, stability, censorship and capture resistance, open-source development, privacy and security, while EIP-1559 should remain even if fee burns do not offset issuance. Buterin said ETH could remain attractive while burns stay below 10% of the level required for supply break-even and questioned valuation models based on predictable fee revenue. Ethereum’s layer-two expansion, accelerated by the March 2024 Dencun upgrade, has reduced mainnet fees and contributed to periods of net ETH issuance, while ETH trades near $2,240. The upgrade’s planned capacity increases through EIP-8037 and EIP-7928 could lift gas limits to 200 million units, making transactions cheaper while gradually reducing token burns. VC @beaniemaxi called Buterin a "wacko," criticized Ethereum’s move away from proof-of-work over environmental FUD, or fear, uncertainty and doubt, and claimed the network is controlled by a "politically driven NGO like organization."