- Ethereum’s founder has been trolled over his looks after being featured by Time Magazine.
- The founder played it cool while Charles Hoskinson offered tips in dealing with the nasty comments.
- Buterin’s feature indicates that he is on a mission to improve Ethereum’s offering and the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Ethereum’s founder has been the butt of jokes since Time Magazine published its latest feature of him. The scathing criticisms have done little to dampen the morale of the Russian-Canadian computer programmer.
The Scathing Criticisms
On March 18th, TIME published a piece called “ The Man Behind Ethereum Is Worried About Crypto’s Future” in which Buterin expressed his concerns on the future of the network. Since the publication, a cross-section of Twitter users have shared the piece while taking swipes at Buterin’s appearance.
“I have never seen a face more deserving of being shoved into a locker in my entire life,” read one tweet while another read, “how is it possible to be this rich and still ugly omg get a hair transplant or botox a new wardrobe SOMETHING”. Others compared him to being Tom Brady on dog food as the conversation steered away from cryptocurrency’s challenges to physical appearance.
Vitalik Buterin played it cool by saying, “The quote tweets on the new time article about me are truly amazing. These are barely cherry-picked, it’s pretty much one piece of awesome after another. Highly recommend scrolling.” He added that he did not know who Tom Brady was but guessed that he was the actor from Mission Impossible.
Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, and Ethereum’s co-founder was quick to offer a measure of advice to Buterin. “Don’t worry, it gets easier every day dealing with the critics.” Hoskinson has come under his fair share of criticisms, notably over the uncertainty over his Ph.D. and Cardano’s slow developmental pace.
Other users were quick to offer support to Buterin while referring to the bullies as being “insecure trolls” and questioning their contributions to humanity. Buterin founded the Ethereum network and co-founded Bitcoin Magazine. The 27-year-old donated over $1 billion worth of Shiba Inu to India’s Covid Relief Fund and other charities. Featured in both Forbes 30 under 30 and Forbes 40 under 40, Buterin has become one of the most influential voices in the crypto ecosystem.
Buterin’s Concerns
In the Time piece, Buterin expressed concerns that crypto has a lot of “dystopian potential if implemented wrongly”. He stated his worry over skyrocketing gas fees, overeager displays, and the ostentatious show of wealth that has become synonymous with cryptocurrencies.
He took a swipe at NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club saying that “the peril if you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling.” These NFT collections have earned the reputation of being the ultimate status symbol with celebrities splurging millions of dollars to add them to their holdings.
Buterin’s dream was for Ethereum to stand as the shining light for positive experimentation and to end Silicon Valley’s dominance over the digital space. The decentralized nature of the platform was to be the polar opposite to the authoritarian tendencies of governments and he warns that greed could overshadow the positives for Ethereum.
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