Time magazine’s latest cover featured Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin as the most influential person in crypto. The publication termed Buterin as the “The Prince of Crypto”, where he gave his insights on the blockchain and the broader crypto industry. Throughout the 80 long minute interview, Buterin delved into how crypto can go wrong if not properly implemented.
He cautioned against overconfident investors, the exorbitant transaction fees, and the brazen displays of wealth that have now come to be associated with crypto. Turning his attention to one of the most talked-about nft projects – the BAYC, the Russian Canadian programmer equated them to gambling which he claims, has reduced to a mere “status symbol for millionaires.”
“The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling,” he says, “There definitely are lots of people that are just buying yachts and Lambos.”
One of the major turning points for the ecosystem has been during the infamous 2016 DAO Hack that led to the creation of a hard fork to fix the project’s vulnerability. The fork was approved after receiving an overwhelming vote from the community, which in turn helped towards Ether’s price recovery. To Buterin, the DAO hack epitomized the promise of a decentralized approach to governance, the article read.
Vitalik Buterin fears Ethereum’s transformative power is at stake
Buterin hopes Ethereum will become the launchpad for all kinds of social projects. Most importantly, he wants the platform to be a force to reckon against authoritarian governments and centralized institutions. Fearing the “transformative power'” of Ethereum is at risk, he admitted to being hesitant to take on a bigger public role.
But Buterin stressed being vocal is of utmost importance, adding “If we don’t exercise our voice, the only things that get built are the things that are immediately profitable. And those are often far from what’s actually the best for the world.”
The EF, better known as Ethereum Foundation is a nonprofit established to safeguard Ethereum’s infrastructure and fund research and development projects. As per sources, its research team is currently working on two key technical updates. One of them is the “merge” which transforms the blockchain from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.
At ETHDenver, the EF researcher Danny Ryan announced that the merge would happen within the next six months, unless “something insanely catastrophic” happens.