Экономист Банк Италии предупреждает о возможных последствиях краха Ethereum для децентрализованных сетей Translation: Economist from the Bank of Italy warns of potential consequences of Ethereums collapse for decentralized networks.

A collapse in the market value of Ethereum could disrupt the operation of the blockchain’s settlement mechanism and freeze assets totaling over $800 billion. This conclusion was reached by economist Claudia Biancotti in her study for the Bank of Italy.

In the document titled «What if Ether Falls to Zero?», the author identified the close link between the value of the native token and the operational integrity of the infrastructure as the primary vulnerability of decentralized networks.

Blockchains are governed by independent validators who earn cryptocurrency rewards (in this case, ETH). If the token loses its value, the financial incentives to maintain the network will vanish. This will trigger a chain reaction that transforms market risk into infrastructure risk.

Validators will begin shutting down their equipment to avoid losses, which will lead to a slowdown and eventually a complete halt in transaction confirmations.

The greatest threat looms over users of assets launched on top of the main blockchain. Even fully backed «stablecoins» (such as USDT and USDC) or tokenized securities could become worthless.

Should the network stop functioning, these assets would remain in wallets but could not be transferred. The infrastructure on which they rely would simply cease to respond.

A decline in token values would not only strip validators of their motivation but also reduce the network’s «security budget.» A 51% attack would become inexpensive, enabling malicious actors to easily seize control of the distributed ledger to execute double-spending or censor transactions.

Biancotti proposed two solutions for regulators to address the issue:

As a protective measure, she suggested maintaining off-chain ownership registries. This would allow users’ balances to be restored in an alternative network if the primary blockchain fails. Automated cross-chain bridges could be unsafe or overloaded during a crisis.

It is worth noting that MN Trading founder Michael van de Poppe stated that the theory of Ethereum’s «death,» based on a prolonged decline in its price relative to Bitcoin, is unfounded.