During an extensive interview with CNBC, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stressed that this network is increasingly independent.
During a recent interview with CNBC from the Czech Republic, Vitalik Buterin stressed that Ethereum could continue on its own in the event of an emergency. In that sense, he downplayed criticism that this network is vulnerable to pressure from governments and regulators.
Unlike Bitcoin, which was born by a mysterious anonymous programmer (Satoshi Nakamoto), Ethereum has visible faces. Thus, according to the philosophy of cryptocurrencies, that is, decentralization, this is a huge weakness.
However, the Ethereum co-founder believes this is no longer the case with that blockchain. In his opinion, in recent years the network has been strongly consolidated and no longer depends on central authority. In other words, he commented to the aforementioned media that, although he participated in the creation of the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), it now has a life of its own.
Ethereum Is Completely Independent, According to Buterin
For Vitalik Buterin, five years ago the Ethereum network would have been an easy target for regulators who wanted to attack it. However, now the matter is more complex when it comes to dismantling the EVM. Behind this, he explains, there are numerous measures that the developers have taken.
Among these, the departure from Proo-of-Work (PoW) towards the so-called Proof-of-Stake (PoS) stands out. Basically, it is about abandoning mining for staking to keep the network operating and generate new coins. As such, the network is now not vulnerable to police raids that generally affect digital mining.
“Mining requires a large amount of infrastructure and security forces know perfectly well how to detect it,” he explains. “On the other hand, with staking, you only need a laptop and a VPN and that’s it.”
Meanwhile, the programmer said that the network enjoys an independence that other more anonymous projects do not have. He alleges that if the Ethereum Foundation were banned everywhere at the same time and he disappeared, the network would still continue.
“Even if the foundation got some magical freeze order in all jurisdictions at the same time, and if something happened to me at the same time, there are entire companies that are the only Ethereum customer maintainers that could totally continue,” said Vitalik Buterin.
Decentralization and Easy Access Are the Great Objective
Among the various topics discussed in the interview, Buterin spoke of two that are fundamental: decentralization and easy access. He expressed that it is a great advance that Bitcoin or Ethereum is accepted anywhere in the world. However, this adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment comes with a big pitfall expressed in centralization and custody.
“I found coffee shops without even looking for them that accepted bitcoins and ethers, but the problem is that they all used Binance,” he lamented. Although he recognizes the role of exchanges in increasing demand, he emphasizes that they are vulnerable and dangerous for users. “Those centralized actors are vulnerable, you know, both to pressure from outside and to corruption themselves,” he stressed.
He also mentioned that the big problem is that there are few alternatives for these custody platforms. Consequently, Ethereum’s next big step, according to Vitalik Buterin, could be to bring people more directly to the blockchain.
He acknowledged that it is now very difficult for non-specialists to use the network in a secure and decentralized way. Hence, the work falls on the developers so that their codes are expressed in more user-friendly interfaces.
By Audy Castaneda
