What does Ethereum mean to you?

My post is a simple one. 2023 is coming to a close and I want to reflect on what Ethereum means to this community. I have two questions.

Why do you hold Ether?

What is something that Ethereum could accomplish that you can look back in 50 years and say "I held through the bear because I believed in Ethereum's ..." Or "Ethereum is a success to me because it ..."?

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For me, I got into crypto in general because I believe that the global financial system is rigged. Anything worth owning became more and more expensive every year, and the dream of owning a home or land became further and further out of reach. It felt like I was on one side of a ballon and my dreams were on the other side. The balloon was being inflated, and it felt like my dreams were literally being inflated away.

Bitcoin struck a chord in me because it espouses transparency, fiscal responsibility, and financial freedom. Here was a money that couldn't be printed into oblivion. Here was a money that wasn't first distributed to the mega-banks and the mega-rich where they buy up assets, creating inflation before finally filtering down to us little people. Here was a money that couldn't be confiscated because the owners embrace ideas that weren't popular. Here was a money that could be sent across the world at the speed of light, 24/7. Here was a money that was controlled by everyday people and not some nameless, unelected, unaccountable, government bureaucrat.

I believe that Bitcoin ossified too soon, and r/Bitcoin started banning anyone who suggested that the code should be upgraded.

That's when I found Ethereum. It was a project that had similar characteristics and desires of Bitcoin but, unlike bitcoin, it was going to continue developing. I hope for Ethereum to become a neutral, global settlement layer. I hold Ether because I want to be a part of the money revolution. I want my children to inherit a world with a fair financial system where the average person can get ahead by saving their ether because the value of their ether isn't being inflated away.