It's a brilliant plan really. First, the Ethereum foundation premines the entire supply of ether, then distributes some of it to the "public" through a sale and

It's a brilliant plan really. First, the Ethereum foundation premines the entire supply of ether, then distributes some of it to the "public" through a sale and the rest to miners. Eventually the Foundation produces an upgrade that replaces mining with validators posting collateral in the form of the very token that was premined. What the announcement doesn't say is how similar Ethereum will become to Ripple post-merge. Yes Ripple doesn't have anywhere near the fancy contract capabilities of Ethereum, nor does it have the concept of validators posting collateral or getting rewards. But in terms of where the power resides and the existence of major chokepoints, they're both very similar.