Vitalik Buterin Tells CZ To Think Bigger: Crypto Is Not Just “Protest” Money
Vitalik Buterin Tells CZ To Look at Bigger Picture: Crypto Is Not Just “Protest” Money
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says that the ongoing financial crisis which spurs protests worldwide is not the same as the 2008 Global Financial Crisis that gave rise to Bitcoin — and that the crypto community needs to get used to think in a different way.
In a Twitter thread from June 2, Buterin said that some of Bitcoin’s most valued narratives had not been borne out this time around.
Pandemic and protests
The Ethereum (ETH) co-founder said 2020 is not a repeat of the financial crisis in 2008/2009. Rather, he noted, it is a “virus crisis”, a crisis of “epistemology” and one of “overbearing policing”.
He expressed doubts about the idea that the Bitcoin narrative around inflation was an important aspect of the current situation — not least because of the upcoming spectre of deflation:
“Yes, the money printer did go brrrrr. But that’s a relatively small portion of what is going on, and even there inflation is still going *down* not up.”
Buterin noted that another narrative — that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are uncorrelated to traditional assets — had not been true to life so far. As proof, he presented a chart of the downturn in the S&P 500 in March, at the same time the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell over 50%.
Get with the times
Buterin said it was high time the community moved beyond the viewpoint expressed by Binance Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Changpeng Zhao in a tweet: “Bitcoin is the peaceful protest”
“I will come out and say this directly: this mentality below is *exactly* what we should be expanding beyond right now. REFORMING MONEY IS NOT SUFFICIENT.”
Other uses for crypto besides finance
But if crypto isn’t just about reforming finance, then what are other use cases? Buterin said there were many categories of applications on Ethereum and other chains which go beyond finance:
“Decentralized censorship-resistant publishing and communication, decentralized communities / governance / DAOs, DAOs for content curation, etc etc. All important work.”
The Ethereum co-founder noted that old ideas die away and the community has to embrace this new reality:
“2016-20 is a period of ideological realignment. Many old ideologies and coalitions are dying, and many new one’s being born. The hills and valleys on the battlefields are shifting. The crypto space needs to be watching carefully and adjust to new realities.”
