Vitalik’s election warning opens loophole in cryptocurrency – DL News

• Donald Trump called Bitcoin a “scam” in 2021, but he’s now pro-crypto.
• Vitalik Buterin warned against supporting politicians just because they are pro-crypto.
• Rising prices and differing ideals are dividing the crypto industry in an increasingly contentious election cycle.

Instead of fighting between Ethereum and Solana, crypto players have a new battleground: American politics.

And a simple question from Vitalik Buterin triggered even more infighting.

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

Although he never named specific candidates, the message sparked serious debate.

“All in all, it all seems too clever, even half-witted.” said Jake Chervinsky, General Counsel of Variant Fund. “Good crypto policy requires electing pro-crypto candidates, period.”

“A billionaire lectures us not to vote in our own financial interests,” tweeted a pseudonymous user named KBB. “I will be voting for pro-crypto candidates all day long.”

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

“Vitalik’s highlight in which he explains the affinity fraud that could occur against superficially ‘crypto-friendly’ politicians” said Tim Swanson, head of market intelligence at Clearmatics, a crypto infrastructure company.

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Peter Van Valkenburgh, research director at the Coin Center, rented Buterin’s warning to maintain crypto’s cypherpunk ethos. “Politicians come and go. Privacy, free speech, and the rule of law must be preserved,” he wrote on X.

Buterin urged voters to consider whether a candidate’s so-called crypto principles align with those underlying the cypherpunk movement, which has more to do with cryptography and privacy rights than the rise of memecoins.

This distinction – between libertarian tech values ​​and get-rich-quick – has become even more evident this year.

“Look at how easily projects have avoided privacy techniques or even removed them for fear of regulation and how that would affect the price of their token,” said Reuben Yap, lead of the privacy project. Firo.

Major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and OKX have either delisted or increased oversight of privacy tokens such as Monero as regulators have stepped up their enforcement in the sector.

Hot political topic

Buterin’s comments come just four months before the hotly contested U.S. presidential election, an election that bears all the hallmarks of a crypto-first election.

The crypto industry has puts pressure For years, politicians have tried to force them to write light laws that don’t stifle innovation, as they often say, arguing that doing so could even swing elections.

Now they seem to have gotten their wish.

Security.org estimates that 40% of Americans will own cryptocurrencies by 2024. Federal Reserve puts this figure at 7%

And with so many voting citizens holding cryptocurrencies, some crypto experts have boiled down the complicated issue of voting for a new U.S. president to a single question: Who’s going to pick my pocket?

President Joe Biden has taken an anti-crypto stance in the past, and he has He vetoed pro-crypto bills and proposed closing tax loopholes for cryptocurrency traders.

More recently, however, it seems to have warmed up to the industry, even if only slightly.

Former President Donald Trump has recently has been described as pro-crypto, despite the fact that he has called Bitcoin a scam in 2021.

And while many support Trump’s position, it is precisely this dithering that Buterin and Yap urge voters to consider.

“I agree with Vitalik that many politicians are just paying lip service to crypto, just to gain traction, without really believing in it,” Yap said.

Others had harsher words.

“Politicians are the puppets of the most promising narratives,” said crypto security researcher Pascal Caversaccio. DL News.

“They’re not doing it because they really care, but because they want to get elected,” he said.

Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL NewsContact us at liam@dlnews.com.

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