Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum, decided to make a moment of introspection and self-analysis public. The programmer wrote a dozen contradictions that he himself detects in his thoughts and values. The first of these involves the network created by him and his predecessor, Bitcoin.
“There is a contradiction between my desire to see Ethereum become more of a Bitcoin-like system, emphasizing long-term stability, even culturally, and my understanding that getting there requires a lot of short-term coordinated active change,” public Buterin on his Twitter account.
The thing is Ethereum is a constantly changing entity. Its monetary policies, its consensus algorithm, the way commissions are paid… everything seems to proceed by trial and error in this general purpose network specialized in smart contracts.
The constant change of Ethereum has cost it several criticisms from bitcoiners. Usually, for supporters of the cryptocurrency devised by Satoshi Nakamoto, it is essential that good money be static in its characteristics, that is, that the rules are not changed in the middle of the game. In this, Bitcoin has a huge advantage, with emission and operation properties immovable and recorded in the code itself.
The second contradiction confessed by Buterin is related to the first. He is undecided if he prefers, on Ethereum, to reduce dependency on people, which means building fixed systems that can stand the test of time; or if he prefers to give relevance to the protagonists (live players) who help the world move forward, whom he appreciates.
A strong layer 1, or a strong “Ethereum ecosystem”?
The contradictions of the Russian-Canadian developer they are not only about what Ethereum should be, but also about what this network should be. He writes:
There is a contradiction between my desire to see Ethereum become a layer 1 that can survive truly extreme circumstances, and my understanding that many key applications in Ethereum are already based on security assumptions much weaker than anything we consider acceptable in the world. Ethereum protocol design.
Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum.
In saying this, Buterin references second layer and sidechain scalability solutions that many developers and users have chosen to use Ethereum. As CriptoNoticias has reported on numerous occasions, the mainnet is easily congested, and when this happens, rollups like Arbitrum or Optimism become the salvation of the ecosystem.
But, These second layer solutions do not have the security and decentralization that the main network does have.. The co-creator of Ethereum is aware of this and believes that the ecosystem as a whole will be secure and decentralized anyway if the base layer is strong.
Also, another of its contradictions is on this topic: “there is a contradiction between my desire to simplify layer 1 as much as possible and my desire to simplify the entire ecosystem as much as possible”.
Vitalik Buterin on Bored Ape and the goals of cryptocurrencies
Did you know that Vitalik Buterin dislikes some of the uses of Ethereum? For example, he dislikes Bored Ape, a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) valued in millions of dollars.
Still, he detects a contradiction there. The programmer is aware “that those things are a big part of what keeps the crypto economy going”. Adds Buterin: «[esas aplicaciones] all my favorite DAO and governance experiments pay.”
Also contradictory, according to Buterin, is his desire for cryptocurrencies to grow beyond finance and his understanding that is finance the most successful category of applications. As he explains, this is so “especially among third world residents, human rights activists and vulnerable people in general.”
Social and political contradictions of Vitalik Buterin
Buterin’s list of contradictions is not only about issues related to his computer creation. Also, more humanistic issues concern him.
For the 28-year-old billionaire, his love for things like decentralization and democracy is contradictory, when — in his own words — in practice agrees more with intellectual elites than with “the people” on many specific political issues.
Regarding governments, politics and cryptocurrencies, Buterin writes:
There is a contradiction between my desire to see more countries adopt radical policy experiments (e.g. ‘crypto countries’) and my understanding that governments more likely to go all the way on such things are more likely to be centralized and unfriendly. with diversity internally.
Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum.
So far, the only country that meets these characteristics 100% is El Salvador. As CriptoNoticias reported last year, Buterin rejected the imposition of bitcoin as legal tender in that nation. For him, “that companies have to compulsorily accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be important for the cryptocurrency space.”
Also, the mind behind Ethereum confesses that there is a contradiction between their “desire to see more diversity in interesting cultures” and their “understanding that maintaining a culture that is distinct from the mainstream often seems to require some sort of of madness or artificial barrier’. Regarding the latter, he adds: “Ideologically I don’t like it.”
By last, Buterin’s contradictions include what he himself wishes to be: a mediating figure that “joins” and can be everyone’s friend? Or someone who is steadfast against evil “at a time when true evil is what we face”?
The “cryptoTwitter” revolved around the contradictions of Vitalik Buterin
This decalogue of contradictions caused talk during this May 17 in the “cryptoTwitter”. Supporters of the young developer highlighted his sincerity for making these thoughts public.
Also, his detractors —many of them, bitcoiners— took advantage of the occasion to invite him to “change teams”.
“Vitalik, you are a Bitcoin maximalist”, wrote him the communicator and popularizer Pablo Wasserman. “You should know this by now. Take as long as you want to finally accept and communicate it. The market will also speak for itself”, he added.