As a reminder, Vitalik often attends Etherium conferences and periodically speaks at them. For example, in the summer of 2021 Vitalik participated in an event called EthCC in Paris, where, among other things, he called for developers to expand the use of blockchain. As Buterin noted, Etherium is now largely seen as a platform for decentralised finance - and that's not a bad thing. However, developers should in any case move on and look for new uses for the distributed reserve technology. You can read more about Vitalik's point of view in this piece.


A few months later, Buterin revealed which option of using the Etherium network surprised him the most. At the time, the developer replied that they were unique non-interchangeable NFT tokens, but did not explain his own position.

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Etherium

Now Vitalik commented on many more topics and did so in an 80-minute dialogue with Time. The latter, by the way, called Buterin the “prince of the cryptocurrency world”, which at the same time has certain concerns.

What will happen to cryptocurrencies

Buterin believes that cryptocurrencies have a lot of negative potential if used in the wrong way. We are talking about possible pollution due to mining, tax evasion with digital assets, money laundering, and the creation of blockchain platforms to deliberately deceive users. As Vitalik notes, many of these concerns are related to the current direction of the coin niche, which at the same time is not in line with his guidelines.

The creator of Etherium would like to see his brainchild become a launching pad for social experimentation. It could be used to test fairer voting systems, unconditional basic income platforms and similar social projects. Buterin believes that such a use case for blockchain could significantly reduce Silicon Valley’s dominance in our digital lives and make the system more balanced.

Vitalik Buterin

That said, Buterin suggests that greedy developers could lead Etherium in the wrong direction of development. Here’s his rejoinder on the subject.

If we don’t talk about it, only those platforms that make instant profits will be created. And they are often very far from what really matters to the world.

Vitalik does believe that the excessive growth of the blockchain industry man’s fortune can distract him from important things. Here is the developer’s rejoinder with which he commented on the exponential growth of the coin niche.

The biggest reason for the divide really was that many of these people only care about money. That wasn’t originally my goal. But now there are definitely those who just buy yachts and Lamborghinis.

Buterin notes that the “shameless display of wealth” is destroying the cryptocurrency community. It forces members of the community to go along with profit and forget what niche coins have really become in the meantime.

Etherium and other cryptocurrencies

What will happen to NFT tokens

While mentioning wealth, Buterin also touched on the subject of NFT tokens. According to him, non-exchangeable tokens have also become a symbol of wealth and a kind of top-tier gambling. Here’s his line on the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.

The danger is that you have these $3 million ape tokens and it becomes another kind of gambling.

NFT tokens of the Bored Ape Yacht Club range

The rise in popularity of NFT has led to an increase in commissions on the Etherium network, a topic that Buterin also touched on. According to him, this problem should be corrected as soon as possible, with the commissions themselves forcing people to give up “some cool stuff” in favour of the already mentioned NFT-tokens and derivatives.

Finally, the developer commented on what is happening in Ukraine and the role of cryptocurrencies in this situation. As a reminder, the coins were actively used as donations for the country’s government and many organisations. Here is his rejoinder.

The positive thing about this situation over the past three weeks has been reminding many people in the cryptocurrency community that, ultimately, the goal of crypto is not to play million-dollar monkey image games, but to perform useful actions that bring tangible improvements in the real world.

The power of Bitcoin


We believe that Vitalik Buterin's approach can indeed be considered sound - at least because he created Etherium and in addition is not pursuing the goal of getting rich. Therefore, the developer is able to make a reasonable assessment of what is happening in the world of digital assets and share his own recommendations for its further development. However, other developers, users and other industry participants will always have the last word in a decentralised system.


What do you think about it? Share your opinion in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. There we will talk about other topics related to the blockchain industry.