Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin penned down a long article reflecting on how “crypto” has gained tremendous traction over the last couple of years. Especially in the political spectrum where various jurisdictions around the globe are considering bills to regulate different blockchain activities. Some notable examples are the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation [MiCA] in the EU, stablecoins regulation efforts in the UK, and the mix of legislation and attempted regulation-by-enforcement from the SEC in the United States.
Buterin sees most of these bills as reasonable, even though there were concerns of governments overstepping their authority like treating almost all coins as securities or banning self-custody wallets. Due to such fears, a section of the crypto community saw the opportunity to become more politically active, favoring political parties and candidates based almost entirely on their stance towards crypto.
This trend, however, Buterin warned, carries risks of going against the values that crypto or decentralization stands for. Instead of overtly focusing on the centrality of “money”, or tokens, the focus should be on the broader principles of freedom and decentralization that underpin the crypto movement.
The Ethereum founder invoked the cypherpunk movement of the early 2000s, which emphasized free and open technology as a way of protecting and enhancing individual freedoms. At the time, the main battle was against restrictive copyright legislation and to counter that were torrent networks, encryption, and internet anonymization.
“A lesson learned very early on the importance of decentralization“, The Ethereum founder stated. He cited the famous example of how centrally controlled networks like Napster, were easily shut down but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor continued to hold their ground.
With the arrival of Bitcoin, internet payments underwent a huge transformation bypassing restrictive copyright laws.
The point of all this is to contextualize the mentality that created blockchains and cryptocurrency in the first place: freedom is important, decentralized networks are good at protecting freedom, and money is an important sphere where such networks can be applied – but it’s one important sphere among several.
Ethereum Founder’s Message To Crypto Community
The Ethereum founder emphasized that supporting crypto should not be limited to one aspect, it should align with broader technological freedoms, such as privacy of communication, digital identity, and thought, as well as access to information. Hence, the crypto community should evaluate politicians not just on their stance towards crypto, but on their broader commitment to these freedoms.
By doing so, they can ensure that their support is based on principles that will remain relevant and protect individual freedoms in the long run.