Here's why crypto could be dangerous and how Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, wants to change it
Last week, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of blockchain company Ethereum and arguably one of the most influential voices in the cryptocurrency space, was interviewed by Time Magazine.
While everyone was certainly keen to hear his take on the future of blockchain technology, Buterin instead spent the interview talking about the worrying trends he has been observing in cryptocurrency as well as the dangers that it could cause if it continues this way—something that is often overlooked as cryptocurrency continues to soar in popularity.
If you missed this riveting piece, here are three key points to note from his interview.
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1. Crypo has the potential to be very dangerous
In his interview, Buterin spoke passionately about how crypto can be dangerous when powered by greed and overeager investors who don’t mind the shameless displays of wealth that tend to pervade the public’s perception of crypto.
“The peril is you have these US$3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling,” he said about Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection of primate cartoons that has, over the years, become a symbol of wealth. Celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton snap them up and the art trades for over a million dollars.
“Crypto itself has a lot of dystopian potentials if implemented wrong,” Buterin explained. Cryptocurrency mining is known to contribute to air pollution, and some crypto users have even exploited the decentralised blockchain technology to evade taxes or carry out money laundering and scams.