Ethereum pros: security researchers who find bugs in smart contracts are rewarded handsomely and instantly

And if they reward themselves too much, the blockchain is forked again?

Developer Cons:

Some write shitty smart contracts.

A lot less often now that best practices are better understood, and people insist on public security audits.

Ethereum cons: when smart contracts do inevitably get hacked, founders pretty much force the community's hand when it comes to forking because they just lost their VC money. Code is law, except when it's not practical for them.

Why is "hacking a smart contract" OK but "hard forking in response" is not?

Because it is a matter of original message. The Ethereum devs have had one mantra from the start: code is law. What is written in the code is what the developer means. There's no room for interpretation.

But, somehow, when someone did something allowed by the code, it turns out it wasn't in the spirit of the law, and so should be forked.

> The Ethereum devs have had one mantra from the start: code is law.

Oh great, now I can actually say something to my ethereum loving brother in law, btw do you have a source for this? Because when I try to search for any resource on the internet from before 2016 where Ethereum developers said that "code is law" I can't find it.

"applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference."

https://www.ethereum.org/

Isn't the blockchain, and therefore the hard-forking mechanism, also code?