Vitalik Buterin remains one of the most wealthy representatives of the crypto industry, although his money is mainly used for donations to various funds and support for new projects.

As of today, Buterin’s wallets hold 240,000 ether worth $568 million. Here is the distribution of coins on the site from Arkham.

Contents of Vitalik Buterin’s Efirium wallet

Also at the end of August, Vitalik revealed his own salary, which he receives as a representative of the Ethereum Foundation. We’re talking about 182 thousand Singapore dollars for the year, which translates to about $140 thousand dollars.

What Buterin thinks about the internet

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, Vitalik expressed concern about the implications of “normalising” the idea of using services along the lines of Google’s tools within the crypto industry. Here is his rejoinder on the matter.

My biggest concern is when we start to entrench network effects that become difficult to undo. For example, if we start normalising the principle of entry with Google for crypto platforms. I think that’s a very bad thing.


Note that some cryptocurrency wallets use Google accounts for authentication, thus making it easier for newcomers to interact with the blockchain world. An example of such a platform is TipLink.


Efirium creator Vitalik Buterin

However, the developer then described a scenario in which authentication services could serve as a bridge to secure systems through the abstraction of accounts as if “under the bonnet”. He continues.

I think the right solution is the following – a wallet should have a signature key or multiple signature keys with different rights, and a formula-defined number of its custodians.

Buterin believes that for new users, the best authentication option would be to use zkEmail, as they already have a Google account or other email service. And the risk of Google letting them down is lower than the risk of errors associated with storing keys on their own.

Features of the zkEmail platform

For more advanced users, it offers the ability to choose their own keepers. This can either be keys they store themselves, zkEmail shells for various centralised identifiers, trusted people or a combination of all these options.

zkEmail is a concept that combines email with zero-disclosure technologies, also known as Zero-Knowledge or zk. The idea is that with zkEmail, you can use email as a means of authentication or data transfer, while providing a high level of privacy and security. Zero-disclosure technology allows information to be transmitted or verified by identity or access type without revealing its contents to third parties.

Thus zkEmail could be used to create private and tamper-proof authentication systems, where even the email service provider or other parties involved in the process do not have access to the user’s personal data.

Another topic raised by Vitalik concerns dueling to the death. On Twitter, a user under the pseudonym ThinkingWest posted a message discussing the history of duels – specifically, pistol duels.

Buterin commented on the discussion in a post on Farcaster. Here’s his rejoinder.

Why don’t people who casually say things like this on other apps realise that there are prediction markets? There, you can say words backed by a real risk of significant personal consequences, and it’s much more peaceful.

Growth in the number of active users of the decentralised Polymarket platform

Polymarket, the most popular decentralised betting platform, is clearly the one we’re talking about here. On it, users can bet on the outcome of various events like elections, sporting events, financial markets and much more.

In general, Polymarket uses the mechanisms of the prediction market, where the price for each outcome reflects the collective expectations of participants about the probability of the event.

The volume of open positions on Polymarket

That is, a probability of, for example, 60 per cent will result in a share price of the event in the region of 60 cents. When the event becomes a reality, the price of shares automatically rises to a dollar, allowing to get profit.

And the income in this case is provided at the expense of money of people who were wrong in the forecast and lost money. Therefore, in general, it is a global redistribution of assets based on certain significant events.

The platform proved to be so popular among users that data from it was added to Bloomberg Terminal at the end of August. This is a tool for monitoring and analysing data on financial markets. Accordingly, this can be perceived as a recognition of the potential of such a platform and a model of operation where users are able to confirm their confidence in a certain outcome of events by means of a bet and, in theory, make money on it.

Data from the decentralised Polymarket platform in Bloomberg Terminal

An important feature of the platform is decentralisation, which ensures transparency and minimises the influence of third parties. Users can trade outcomes, which makes the platform similar to a market where the price of each outcome changes depending on supply and demand.

However, it should be understood that the platform does not predict the future, but is only a reflection of traders’ expectations for a certain event. Previously, analysts also shared their concerns about the possibility of influencing public opinion on what is happening.

For example, the allocation of a certain amount of money can lead to a noticeable increase in the probability of a certain outcome on Polymarket, which in turn will affect its perception of people and their corresponding actions. This can be very dangerous in the case of events such as the US presidential election, which affects the entire world.

Former US President Donald Trump


Vitalik Buterin's comments continue to be unexpected and useful. Previously, he voiced three options for optimising what is happening on the Etherium blockchain, including increasing the minimum amount for staking. Read more about it in a separate article.