📣 AllianceDAO founder Jacob Franek: To win back young developers, Ethereum needs fewer hackathons and more investments in accelerators!

If the Ethereum community wants to reverse the declining momentum in development activity, it should shift focus from hackathons to truly supporting builders — according to Jacob Franek, founder of AllianceDAO, who shared three key recommendations on X:

1️⃣ "Hackathons are not suitable for serious developers."
Franek bluntly states that Ethereum and the entire crypto industry rely too heavily on hackathons, but most projects end up abandoned, and a $5,000 prize cannot produce world-changing products. In contrast, top applications in AI have never originated from hackathons.

2️⃣ Funds should be redirected to accelerators and ecosystem funds.
Ethereum should stop only investing in basic research and instead channel resources into accelerators, incubation programs, ecosystem venture capital, and growth funds. Otherwise, it will continue losing young talent and ultimately decline.

3️⃣ Improve UX: Layer 1 scaling and interoperable Layer 2 solutions.
Franek emphasizes that ten years of Web2 experience proves: "users always choose the most convenient products." UI and onboarding must be extremely simple, especially for the younger generation whose attention spans are decreasing.

He concludes with a warning: "Young developers are moving to AI and other chains. If Ethereum can't attract them, it will die — it's that simple."