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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

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

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

KEY POINTS

A growing number of key players and prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space are calling on voters within the industry to choose candidates who have expressed support for the sector, but one well-known industry pioneer is going against the tide.

Coinbase leads calls for 'pro-crypto' candidates support

Last month, crypto exchange giant Coinbase led the way in calling on the industry to support "pro-crypto" candidates. It reiterated that it is an "apolitical" company but will go for any path that will allow it to be "deeply engaged in policy efforts."

Coinbase donated $25 million worth of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin to help fund the Fairshake SuperPAC. It said the best way for the industry to achieve regulatory clarity is to elect pro-crypto candidates "on both sides of the aisle" and remove anti-crypto candidates from office.

Stand With Crypto the voice of political activism

Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit that calls for "clear, common-sense regulations" for the industry, continues to urge crypto users and other stakeholders to engage in political activism.

It sponsored the Crypto RNC blockchain knowledge base at the 2024 GOP Convention in Milwaukee and has engaged in discussions with a growing number of politicians on crypto policy and regulation.

Ethereum figure warns against 'trend'

While some prominent crypto figures such as the Winklevoss twins have already made it clear which presidential candidate they will vote for, others appear to still be weighing the pros and cons.

For Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, making decisions based on how "pro-crypto" a candidate is may not be the best route. "There is a growing push within the crypto space to become more politically active, and favor political parties and candidates almost entirely on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly to crypto. In this post, I argue against this trend, and in particular 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 wrote in a blog Wednesday.

He explained that there is more to crypto than just the tokens and several known benefits it has to offer. He said there are broader aspects of the industry such as "goals that motivate people to build and participate in blockchain applications" that often have implications outside of the technology. "Don't stand with crypto-as-in-cryptocurrency, stand with those underlying goals, and the whole set of policy implications that they imply," he wrote.

How long can candidates stay crypto-friendly?

In the middle of his lengthy post, Buterin briefly discussed a critical aspect of politics in crypto. He noted that "crypto-friendly now does not mean crypto-friendly five years from now." The prominent computer programmer who also co-founded Bitcoin Magazine, urged crypto users to look up candidates' views on the industry and related topics from five years back to have an idea on how they have changed since.

It's more complicated than crypto voters think

Buterin, whose brainchild is expected to see its very own spot $ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) go live next week, argued that politics is more complicated than determining who wins the elections. He noted that publicly giving the impression that a crypto voter supports pro-crypto candidates helps create "an incentive gradient where politicians come to understand that all they need to get your support is to support 'crypto.'"

He pointed out further that it will no longer matter if that candidate supports the ban of encrypted messaging or "if they are a power-seeking narcissist," or if the candidate pushes for bills that make it difficult for other people to attend an upcoming crypto conference.

Asking the right questions

Finally, Buterin said the most important thing for crypto voters to do is to ask the right questions, and key among those questions is whether candidates claiming to be pro-crypto are "in it for the right reasons" whether they have a vision for the broader technology surrounding crypto.

Buterin's arguments support the findings in a recent poll (2024 Election: The Role of Crypto) that showed 79% of respondents believe it is "imperative that political leaders work towards creating frameworks and rules that enable financial inclusion and investor protection."

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Vitalik Buterin Warns Against 'Trend' Of Favoring Pro-Crypto Candidates - International Business Times

A couple of days ago, even the most well-known figure in the crypto world, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, wanted to express his views on the upcoming presidential elections to be held in November in the USA.

Buterin has not openly sided with any of the candidates, but he wanted to warn voters that truly supporting the crypto world does not just mean making propaganda in favor.

Vitalik Buterin has published a long post on his blog titled Against choosing your political alliances based on who is pro-crypto.

The implicit reference is to those US politicians who, for purely electoral reasons, seek consensus by declaring themselves in favor of the crypto world.

In the post, Donald Trump is never mentioned, but it seems evident that Buterin was really referring to him.

Trump is now widely in favor of cryptocurrencies, also because he has earned a lot of ETH by selling NFTs, and apparently he is willing to sell more of them.

However, when he was President, and in particular in 2019, he said he would ban Bitcoin if it reached the price of $100,000.

Indeed, according to what was stated by the CEO of Block, Mike Brock, in 2020 Trump actually tried to ban Bitcoin, but was then stopped by Steve Mnuchin and a group of people from his administration who did not follow his wishes, in order to preserve American competitiveness and innovation.

Brock claims that he was present at the meeting where these things were discussed.

In his post Buterin states that in the last two years cryptocurrencies have become an increasingly important topic in politics, and not only in the USA.

He also says he considers many of the laws that have already been approved, or are under study, regarding the crypto world to be reasonable, but notes that within the sector there is a growing push to become more politically active and favor political parties and candidates based on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly with crypto.

Buterin states that he is against this trend, because he argues that making decisions in this way involves a high risk of going against the values that in the first place drive people to enter the world of cryptocurrencies.

The famous co-founder of Ethereum explicitly cites the cypherpunk movement within which years ago the decentralization projects based on blockchain began to take shape, and which in fact had the objective of challenging the control of centralized authorities such as States.

It is a sort of return to the origins, that is, a recovery of the original reasons that pushed on one side some technicians to develop decentralized systems based on blockchain, and on the other millions of citizens to embrace them.

Furthermore, he adds that the game of politics is much more complicated than a simple who wins the next elections.

For these reasons, it is suggested not to vote for pro-crypto candidates just because they are pro-crypto, as otherwise, there is a risk of giving incentives to politicians who might limit themselves to trying to get votes by saying they support the crypto world.

Adds:

It doesnt matter if they also support the ban on encrypted messages, if they are narcissists seeking power, or if they push for bills that make it even harder for your Chinese or Indian friend to attend the next cryptocurrency conference: all politicians need to do is ensure that its easy for you to trade coins.

So it encourages considering other characteristics to evaluate the candidates, saying that there are much more honorable incentive gradients that one could help create.

Buterin also suggests asking oneself, in the case of candidates who claim to be pro-crypto, if they are doing it for the right reasons, and not just to gain momentary approval.

Being truly pro-crypto, according to Buterin, also means having a vision of how technology, politics, and the economy should progress in the 21st century, and having a good positive outlook that goes beyond short-term concerns.

The fact remains that it highlights the difference between politics and politicians, meaning by politics the governmental activity, and by politicians those who in democratic countries run for elections with the precise (and often sole) purpose of winning them.

It therefore suggests to voters to go beyond the words of politicians, often deceitful because they are pure propaganda, and to reason about what can realistically be expected from the real political action of future bull.

To understand the concerns of the famous co-founder of Ethereum, it is useful to also consider some contextual information about him.

Vitaliy Dmitrievi Buterin, known as Vitalik, was born in Russia in 1994.

At the age of six, he emigrated to Canada with his parents, so much so that he is now a Canadian citizen.

So he observes US politics relatively from afar, even though inevitably it affects his fortunes since the USA is by far the largest crypto market in the world. Buterin will not vote in the US presidential elections in November.

In recent years, he has often spoken very negatively about the politics of his home country, Russia, probably also due to his libertarian nature which makes him dislike authoritarian regimes like the current Russian one.

It is easy to imagine that even a figure like Donald Trump, who presents himself with clear authoritarian traits, is not much liked, even if it does not seem that he supports the rival Biden.

His concerns about the American elections actually seem to go far beyond the aspects more exquisitely related to the crypto sector, also because Buterin is a very informed person who has very broad and complex ideas regarding the entire human society, and not just the world of cryptocurrencies.

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Even Vitalik Buterin shares his thoughts on the USA elections - The Cryptonomist