Vitalik Buterin on The Five Biggest Misconceptions in Crypto
Vitalik Buterin, Co-founder of the Ethereum, recently shared his views on some of the biggest misconceptions in the crypto community. In the interview on The 80,000 Hours Podcast, he also admitted that more than half blockchain projects are stupid and he wishes they didn’t exist.
Speaking of the most widely held but, according to him, incorrect beliefs in the Cryptoverse, he stated that different tribes have different misconceptions: “The crypto community isn’t really a unified thing and there’s definitely kind of different sub-tribes inside of the crypto community. And I think different sub-tribes have different misconceptions.”
The biggest misconceptions in the Cryptoverse according to Vitalik Buterin
1. Bitcoin misconceptions:
“On the Bitcoin side for example, like this idea that 2% inflation is this thing that’s wrecking the economy and the next… And the next big step for progress would be turning humanity into a type one civilization that roams the stars is to get rid of existing fiat currencies and replace them with this 21 million fixed supply kind of thing. I think that’s crazy.”
2. Tron and EOS misconceptions:
“I think they have this belief that basically says like, ‘Oh these blockchains are not super decentralized anyway and so we’re just going to be even more centralized and so we’re going to get more efficiency without getting any of the downsides… I think they don’t really realize the kind of, some of the more subtle benefits that de-centralization gets you and a lot of those things are going to come out like if political environments become less favorable.”
3. General cryptocurrency misconception:
“I see a lot of people kind of making a mistake one way or the other where they think that either cryptocurrencies are going to completely overtake Venmo [a mobile payment service owned by PayPal] or they think that there is no room for them at all.”
4. Censorship resistance misconception:
“Basically, a lot of people have this mindset that says, ‘We’re going to create this thing, and it’s going to just on its own completely be able to overpower governments and they’re not going to be able to do anything about it and it’s just going to turn the world into a crypto-anarchy and that’ll be great.’”
5. Government-related misconception:
“I think they underestimate the power that governments do have. So you look at things like uh, the great fire wall, like different countries attempts at enforcing copyright infringements on the Internet. Crackdowns on the sex industry — a lot of these different kinds of censorship.”
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And when asked whether there are blockchain projects that he thinks are plain stupid and he wished they didn’t exist, he answered:
“It starts with a T and rhymes with cron. Well, no, realistically more than half of them.”
Regarding the key issue with these projects, he said that they simply use blockchains for doing “a money grab.”
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Read more: Has the Bitcoin-Ethereum Rivalry Hit New Heights of Hostility?
Watch: Vitalik on Casper, Ethereum 2.0 and a ‘Pile of Trash’
