Archive for the ‘Vitalik Buterin’ Category

Crypto community marks 10-year Ethereum ICO anniversary with global events – Cointelegraph

The global blockchain industry is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Ethereum networks initial coin offering (ICO).

Ethereum started gaining traction in 2014 when co-founder Vitalik Buterin mentioned the project at a Bitcoin conference in Miami.

On July 22, Ethereum launched its ICO, selling over $18 million worth of Ether (ETH) paid for in Bitcoin (BTC).

Ethereum has come a long way since its inception. Given the networks success, some members of the Web3 community are hosting celebrations in honor of Ethereum.

Cy Li, director of EDCON and De University of Ethereum a nonprofit organization dedicated to blockchain education told Cointelegraph that Ethereums first decade will be celebrated at EDCON 2024. Li mentioned that the event will take place from July 2430 in Tokyo, Japan.

Li said Ethereum co-founders Joe Lubin and Buterin, along with the original ICO participants and Ethereum Foundation core team members, will speak during the event.

Well bridge Ethereums revolutionary past with its ambitious future, exploring key themes like interoperability, open source development, and community building, Li said.

Li added that Tokyo is an ideal place to host an Ethereum event, noting that the region has become a rising blockchain hub. This appears to be the case, especially as Japans regulatory environment for crypto continues to evolve.

Recent:Elon Musk lashes out at EU over illegal free speech deal

In addition to the regions crypto-friendly regulations, the University of Tokyo announced two years ago that it would offer courses in the metaverse.

By celebrating in Tokyo, were aiming to position Ethereum at the forefront of a culture that embraces both heritage and cutting-edge technology, setting the stage for the next wave of blockchain adoption, Li said.

Ken Fromm, managing drector of BuildETH, told Cointelegraph that Ethereum companies based in San Francisco will host a birthday party to honor the Ethereum ICO.

BuildETH, CookBook, Dabl Club, SKALE Network, Quantstamp, DoraHacks and others will be celebrating this milestone in San Francisco on July 22, Fromm said.

According to Fromm, San Francisco is an appropriate location to celebrate the Ethereum ICO anniversary. Its an open and social city and a favorite of tech innovators and pirates, he remarked.

Indeed, San Francisco remains one of the original crypto hotspots. Even after a number of Web3 developers left the Bay Area following the COVID-19 pandemic, the region remains home to several blockchain companies.

Noelle Becker Moreno, chief marketing officer of blockchain development firm Edge & Node, told Cointelegraph that Edge & Nodes House of Web3 in San Francisco will also be hosting a happy hour in collaboration with The Graph and Crypto Mondays.

This event aims to bring together the vibrant Web3 community for an evening of celebration and reflection on the milestones achieved since the Ethereum ICO, she said.

Becker Moreno believes its important to celebrate the Ethereum ICO anniversary since the ETH public sale marks a pivotal moment for the Web3 community:

Were excited [...] to bring San Franciscos Web3 community together to toast to Ethereums success, along with all those dedicated to the innovations that will drive us forward.

While its notable that Ethereum has matured since the projects ICO 10 years ago, industry participants hope to see continued growth.

Fromm remarked that he wants to see improved account access and control for individuals and organizations using the network.

Recent: Airdrop token prices are crashing Does Web3 need a new model?

I love the simple aspect of signing a transaction with a private key, but this simplicity carries with it vulnerabilities such that even the most experienced people are reluctant to use the same account across different apps and protocols, Fromm said.

Fromm further commented that better trust protocols around Ethereum are still needed. By this, I mean better ways to detect who to trust or what app or protocol to trust, he said.

In addition, Buterin recently stated that he believes artificial intelligence will be able to detect bugs within Ethereum-based code, remarking that this is currently one of Ethereums biggest technical risks.

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Crypto community marks 10-year Ethereum ICO anniversary with global events - Cointelegraph

Charles Hoskinson rejects Vitalik Buterins view on pro-crypto voting – Cointelegraph

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Input Output Global and the Cardano blockchain ecosystem, has openly disagreed with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterins recent statement advising against choosing political allegiances based solely on a candidates stance on cryptocurrency.

In a post on X, Hoskinsonarguedthat the crypto community should adopt a single-issue voting strategy focused on supporting pro-crypto candidates. He believes that politicians will think twice before targeting the crypto industry if they understand the potential electoral consequences.

Hoskinson argued that voting for current President Joe Biden would negatively impact the American crypto industry. He believes that making crypto a decisive voting issue will force politicians to moderate their stance and avoid actions that could harm the industry.

Buterin recently expressed his concerns around single-issue crypto voting, cautioning voters against backing political candidates who profess support for cryptocurrencies without supporting the technologys underlying principles and objectives.

Buterins blog post stresses that the crypto movements original values, inspired by the cypherpunk ethos, focus on promoting overall freedom and decentralization, beyond just financial freedom.

He also highlights the potential dangers of aligning with authoritarian regimes that support crypto for their own benefit while suppressing individual freedoms.

Related:Ripple backs Deaton with $1M donation in senate race against Warren

Buterin warns that focusing narrowly on pro-crypto candidates may lead to supporting politicians whose broader values might not align with those of the crypto community. He stressed the importance of considering a politicians overall vision for technology, privacy and internationalism rather than just their stance on cryptocurrency.

The 2024 US presidential election may feel the impact of the merging cryptocurrency and political landscapes, as candidates crypto-related policies and views on blockchain innovation have become a key factor in some voters decisions.

Results from a November 2023 Harris Poll conducted for Grayscale show that almost half of American voters (47%) plan to include cryptocurrency in their investment portfolio in the future.

This years election campaign marks the first time leading presidential candidates have actively discussed its impact a notable departure from previous campaigns where it played a smaller role, such as Andrew Yangs.

Magazine: Crypto voters are already disrupting the 2024 election and its set to continue

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Charles Hoskinson rejects Vitalik Buterins view on pro-crypto voting - Cointelegraph

Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Argues Against Supporting only Pro-Crypto Politicians – Cryptonews

Last updated: July 18, 2024, 02:53 EDT | 2 min read

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, on Wednesday, warned against voting candidates solely based on their crypto support. His comments come at a time when politicians, particularly Republicans are using crypto to influence the US elections.

Vitalik Buterin cautioned the crypto community that merely voting candidates based on their pro-crypto stance without understanding the technologys primary goals.

I argue that making decisions in this way carries a high risk of going against the values that brought you into the crypto space in the first place.

He advocates for a broader evaluation that aligns with the fundamental values of decentralization, privacy and technological freedom. He stressed on how early advocates promoted decentralization to safeguard individual freedoms beyond financial transactions.

Buterins warning comes at a time when Donald Trump, who claims himself a pro-crypto presidential nominee, recently picked pro-Bitcoin senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his choice for running mate.

Vitalik Buterin has further called crypto users to look into crypto-friendly politicians view on cryptos 5 years ago.

Similarly, look up their views on related topics, such as encrypted messaging five years ago. This can be a good guide on what kinds of changes to their views might happen five years in the future, he wrote.

Buterin has used Russias example to illustrate how crypto-friendly policies can be applied to benefit the government. He argues the community to be vigilant and avoid blindly supporting politicians who might use crypto support to further authoritarian agendas.

By publicly giving the impression that you support pro-crypto candidates just because they are pro-crypto, you are helping to create an incentive gradient where politicians come to understand that all they need to get your support is to support crypto.

The US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has amassed several crypto industry leaders lately due to his widely-promoted crypto-friendly stance.

Trumps campaign received donations in cryptocurrencies, after he promised to defend the rights of those who choose to self-custody their coins. This means, users do not need to rely on centralized crypto wallets like Coinbase to hold their tokens. Instead, they can hold their cryptos in personal wallets.

For instance, he received $2 million worth Bitcoin from crypto billionaires Winklevoss twins, founder of Gemini exchange. Elon Musk and Venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also made significant donations to political action committees supporting Donald Trumps campaign.

Ryan Selkis, the co-founder of crypto information platform Messari, has blasted Buterin for his warning post. Selkis openly called himself as a single issue voter, throwing his support for Trump, as he likes crypto. He was also present at Trumps recent Mar-a-Lago gala for NFT holders.

I respect Vitalik but he has always been among the most naive and useless political commentators in crypto, Selkis wrote on X. He said Buterin is wrong in his thoughts.

Idealism is not realism, and he pretends we arent dealing with a cultural cancer and infestation of Marxism.

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Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Argues Against Supporting only Pro-Crypto Politicians - Cryptonews

WazirX Hacked for $230M; Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin Speak Up on Crypto and Politics – CoinDesk

Was our X hacked for $230 million and influential people are at odds over crypto focussed political candidates. You're watching Coin desk daily. I'm your host, Jen Sani Indian crypto exchange. Walter X experienced a security breach in one of its multi sig wallets leading to the loss of user funds and over $230 million in withdrawals. The exchange confirmed the attack in an ex post and announced that in R and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused for the safety of users assets. The stolen funds account for over 45% of the exchange's $500 million holdings which it disclosed in a June report, Blockchain slew. The lit take said that North Korea linked hackers appear to have perpetrated the attack and transactional data shows the exploiter is actively selling the stolen tokens including $100 million worth of Shiba Inu and $52 million in Ether using Unis Mark Cuban posted. It's a Bitcoin play on X saying that Trump as president makes it easier to operate a crypto business because of the inevitable and required changes at the US SEC. It was reported this week that V CS Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz plan to donate money to support Trump's campaign. Now, all this, well, if you co-founder Vitale Bin argued against supporting candidates purely based on whether they are pro crypto or not in a blog published on Wednesday. He said that by publicly giving the impression that you support pro crypto candidates just because they're pro crypto, you're helping to create an incentive gradient where politicians come to understand that all they need to get your support is to support crypto and Polygon labs. The main developer firm behind Polygon said it will be performing the technical upgrade that swaps out its Matic token for its new poll token on September 4th. The migration comes as part of Polygon's planned revamp laid out in last year's Polygon 2.0 road map after the swap poll will be the main token for all Polygon networks. That's it for coin desk daily, get more updates on coin desk.com and we'll see you next time.

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WazirX Hacked for $230M; Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin Speak Up on Crypto and Politics - CoinDesk

Vitaliks election warning opens rift in crypto – DLNews

Instead of fighting between Ethereum and Solana, crypto participants have a new battleground US politics.

And a simple question from Vitalik Buterin kicked off even more infighting.

If a politician is pro-crypto, the key question to ask is: are they in it for the right reasons? the Ethereum co-founder wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

Though he never named any specific candidates, the post sparked a serious debate.

Overall, much of this seems too clever by half, said Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at Variant Fund. Good crypto policy requires electing pro-crypto candidates, period.

Billionaire lecturing the rest of us not to vote in our own financial interest, tweeted a pseudonymous user named KBB. Ill vote pro-crypto candidates all day.

Others applauded Buterin, a 30-year-old Canadian and Russian programmer, for wading into the debate.

Salient point from Vitalik wherein he explains the affinity fraud that could occur with regard to superficially crypto-friendly politicos, said Tim Swanson, head of market intel at Clearmatics, a crypto infrastructure firm.

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Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, lauded Buterins warning to maintain cryptos cypherpunk ethos. Politicians will come and go. Privacy, speech, and the rule of law must be preserved, he wrote on X.

Buterin urged voters to examine whether a candidates so-called crypto principles align with those that underpin the cypherpunk movement, which has more to do with cryptography and privacy rights than with skyrocketing memecoins.

That distinction between tech-libertarian values and getting rich quickly has become even more evident this year.

Look at how easily projects have shied away from privacy techniques or even stripped them away because of the fear of regulation and how it would affect their token price, Reuben Yap, project steward of privacy project Firo.

Major crypto exchanges like Binance and OKX have either delisted or upped monitoring of privacy tokens such as Monero as regulators have increased their enforcement of the industry.

Buterins comments come just four months ahead of the hotly contested presidential election in the United States one that bears all the hallmarks of becoming the first crypto election.

The crypto industry has lobbied politicos for years to make them write light-touch laws that dont as they often put it stifle innovation, pushing the narrative that it could even swing elections.

Now, they seem to be getting their wish.

Security.org estimates that 40% of Americans own crypto in 2024. The Federal Reserve puts that figure at 7%

And with so many voting citizens holding crypto, some crypto pundits have whittled down the complicated matter of voting for a new US president to one question: Who will pump my bags?

President Joe Biden has adopted an anti-crypto stance in the past, and he has vetoed pro-crypto bills and proposed to close tax loopholes for crypto traders.

More recently, however, he seems to have warmed up to industry, if just ever so slightly.

Former President Donald Trump has recently been painted as pro-crypto, despite having called Bitcoin a scam in 2021.

And while many champion Trumps position, its this waffling that Buterin and Yap urge voters to consider.

I agree with Vitalik in that many politicians are just paying lip service to supporting crypto just as a way to gain traction without actually truly believing in it, said Yap.

Others had harsher words.

Politicians are muppets of the most promising narratives, Pascal Caversaccio, a crypto security researcher, told DL News.

They dont do it because they truly care but because they want to be voted for, he said.

Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Reach out at liam@dlnews.com.

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Vitaliks election warning opens rift in crypto - DLNews