Vitalik Buterin in ‘wartime mode’ tops KOL mindshare as he slams ETH critics

As an analyst with over two decades of experience in the tech and finance industries, I have witnessed countless debates and controversies surrounding innovative technologies. The recent flurry of criticism toward Ethereum and its co-founder Vitalik Buterin is no exception.


For the past week, Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, has been the most influential figure (or “KOL mindshare”) in the crypto world on the platform Crypto X, amid a wave of criticism directed towards Ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation.

Based on Andy’s report from The Rollup crypto show and data provided by Kaito AI, Vitalik Buterin, referred to as “wartime mode,” held the largest portion of Key Opinion Leader (KOL) mindshare in the past week with a share of 1.69%. This was closely followed by Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz who had a KOL mindshare of 1.18%.

Buterin was forced to write a lengthy post on X recently, defending the Ethereum Foundation’s routine sale of Ether (ETH). 

In response to his critics, Buterin clarified that the funds from Ethereum sales are utilized to compensate developers and researchers for maintaining the network’s proof-of-stake mechanism. This mechanism ensures swift transaction processing within less than 30 seconds at relatively low fees. Additionally, it provides privacy features through zero-knowledge proofs and has kept the network operational without any downtime since its inception in 2016. He encourages them to reconsider their stance on this matter.

“Show some respect.”Source: Vitalik Buterin

Asked why the Ethereum Foundation doesn’t stake all of its Ether and use the revenue to cover costs instead of selling, Buterin explained the Ethereum Foundation wants to avoid being forced to make an “official choice” in the event of a contentious hard fork.

Instead, Buterin mentioned that the Ethereum Foundation is investigating alternative ways for interaction with staking, such as awarding grants using staked Ether. This approach would enable grant recipients to manage their own withdrawal schedules and retain the benefits.

Additionally, he talked about transferring the Ethereum Foundation’s management of staking duties to other institutions.

Buterin has become more vocal on X of late as Ethereum FUD continues to run rampant.

As a crypto investor, I’ve noticed a significant wave of pessimism surrounding Ether, largely due to its underperformance in comparison to heavyweights like Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL). The issue at hand seems to be twofold: firstly, Ether’s layer 2 scaling strategy, which on the surface appears promising, yet has resulted in decreased revenues on the base layer. This duality of progress and setback might be causing some unease among investors.

Recently, Vitalik Buterin has been outlining Ethereum’s technical plan, offering his perspectives and suggestions for the potential effects of phases like “The Merge,” “Surge,” “Scourge,” “Verge,” and “Purge” on Ethereum’s future.

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2024-10-28 03:41