I’ll start with this: I love Ethereum. It’s how I got into Web3, how I build dApps, and why I’m still here, building in this space. But the more time I spend working with it, the more I realize — Ethereum has problems.
This isn’t a rant. It’s a reality check.
From the perspective of a developer who builds on Ethereum every day, here’s what’s not working — and why we need to talk about it.
1. Gas fees are still a UX nightmare 🧾
Yes, gas fees have come down — especially post-Merge and with L2 adoption — but let’s not pretend they’re user-friendly.
- \$10–\$40 for a basic transaction?
- \$100+ for contract interactions?
- That’s not “open finance” — it’s a gated protocol.
As developers, we’re constantly explaining why users need to pay to do anything. And every explanation costs us conversions.
2. UX is still broken for normal people 😵
Ethereum was never designed for humans. That much is obvious.
- 0x addresses are unreadable
- Signing transactions is terrifying
- Errors are vague or misleading
- Transaction status is non-intuitive
We end up duct-taping tutorials, walkthroughs, and helper tools just to keep users from rage-quitting.
3. L2s brought scale — and fragmentation 🧩
Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Base, Linea…
Every Layer 2 has its own quirks, APIs, bridges, bugs, and limitations.
Yes, rollups are the path forward. But for developers, it’s chaos.
- Where is my contract deployed?
- Which bridge supports it?
- How do I onboard users who don’t know what a rollup even is?
Ethereum isn’t becoming one scalable chain — it’s becoming a scattered universe.
4. Lack of enforced standards 😐
We’ve got EIPs, sure. We’ve got OpenZeppelin. Great.
But beyond the basics like ERC-20 and ERC-721, there’s little consistency.
- How do we handle upgradability?
- What’s the standard for cross-chain logic?
- How do we agree on gas optimizations?
The answer too often is: “Check how others are doing it.” That’s not a framework — it’s tribal knowledge.
5. Dev onboarding is still painful 🛠️
Want to become an Ethereum dev? Prepare to:
- Learn Solidity (and its quirks)
- Pick from Hardhat, Foundry, Truffle (good luck)
- Navigate Ethers.js, Wagmi, Web3.js, viem
- Debug vague
revertmessages without context
Without a mentor, it’s genuinely hard. That’s a problem if we want to attract talent from Web2.
But still... Ethereum is unmatched 💪
Despite all of this, Ethereum remains the most mature, secure, well-documented, and decentralized smart contract platform.
It’s far from perfect, but it’s evolving.
And I believe in its future.
I believe we’ll see:
- L2 abstraction that hides complexity
- Gasless UX for end-users
- Cleaner, safer wallet flows
- Better tooling and DX for developers
Final Thoughts
Ethereum today is like Linux in the early 2000s: powerful, reliable, but not for the average user.
As developers, it’s not just our job to point out what’s broken.
It’s our job to help fix it.
Write better docs. Push standards. Build tools. Support new devs.
Because Ethereum isn’t just tech — it’s infrastructure for the next internet.
💬 What frustrates you most as a developer building on Ethereum?
Let’s compare notes — and maybe even build some fixes together.
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