Recall that Vitalik was generally concerned about the future of the cryptocurrency industry, which he revealed in the second half of March. At that time, he made it clear that the coin niche offers serious opportunities for people with bad intentions. Buterin commented in particular on the topic of getting rich quick, which is what many people are getting involved with cryptocurrencies and NFT tokens for.

The developer believes that Etherium should become a platform for social experiments that improve people's lives. For example, through fair voting systems, basic income payments and other similar initiatives. And non-interchangeable tokens in the form of monkeys for millions of dollars are not particularly impressive to Buterin.


What are cryptocurrency users criticised for?

Here’s one of Buterin’s quotes published by the Cointelegraph news outlet.

If we don’t insist on our point of view, then things will be created based on Etherium that only generate quick profits.

Vitalik Buterin

Sergey Kuntz, co-founder of 1inch Network, disagreed with Vitalik’s theses. He said that while there are “rogue projects” trying to get money from ordinary investors, there are also good start-ups that really need funding and can get it from venture capitalists. Accordingly, they, too, expect to make a profit. Here is Kuntz’s quote.

We see business angels and investors. They have helped us. They gave us money so we could focus completely, work on this startup [we are talking about 1inch – editor’s note]. We are working to improve our field and create something unique.

Cryptocurrency investor

GTON Capital developer Alexei Pupyshev believes there should be a balance between profitable and non-commercial initiatives in the crypto industry. Here’s his rejoinder.

We need more motivation for people who explore innovation. They do it by investing money.

But at cryptocurrency company Ozone, they believe that the problem mentioned is directly related to the growth of the Etherium ecosystem. As it grows, Etherium will in any case attract people who want to make a quick profit. However, it is unlikely that this trend will become a major thesis of the platform any time soon.

Read also: Analysts at Grayscale have compared Ethereum's blockchain to New York City. What do they have in common?

The rapid growth is not only being recorded in Ethereum, but in the entire crypto industry as a whole. According to a new study by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, there has been a rapid increase in the number of cryptocurrency users in 2021. With almost half of the total number of crypto-enthusiasts to date having purchased their first coins just last year.

This information was taken from a Gemini survey of 30,000 respondents from twenty countries between November and February. The analysts found that India, Brazil and Hong Kong can be considered as the key regions in terms of cryptoinnovation growth. Moreover, Brazil and Indonesia have the largest number of people owning crypto compared to the country’s population – 41 percent. By comparison, in the US the figure is still 20 percent and in Europe it is 17 percent.

Percentage of population who own crypto in different countries

High levels of cryptocurrency ownership are also seen in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Israel: 35, 30 and 28 percent of respondents respectively. In addition, the report raises the issue of uncertainty around the regulation of digital assets and the lack of good education programmes about blockchain.

This issue was mentioned by 39 percent of respondents in Asia-Pacific, 37 percent in Latin America and 36 percent in Europe among people who do not yet own crypto. 30 per cent of respondents in the Middle East, 24 per cent in Asia-Pacific and 23 per cent in Latin America also mentioned that tax reporting on cryptocurrencies deterred them from deciding to buy cryptocurrencies.


We think Vitalik Buterin's concerns do make sense: After all, many cryptocurrency developers initially plan to use the niche solely for their own livelihood, not to mention fraudsters and hackers. As such, blockchain users need to be extremely careful not to risk their money unnecessarily. That said, it's important to note that there are plenty of bona fide developers in the niche as well, who have already brought the coin niche to its current state.


What do you think about this? Share your opinion in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. There we will discuss other important developments related to blockchain and digital assets.