Vitalik Buterin Reflects on 2021: ‘I Completely Missed NFTs’

By José Oramas January 04, 2022 In Crypto News, Ethereum, NFTs, Stablecoins

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the second-largest cryptocurrency and decentralised ecosystem, Ethereum, has admitted he “completely missed NFTs” (non-fungible tokens).

In a recent Twitter storm, the programmer and crypto writer shared his thoughts about the current state of the industry. Since the launch of Ethereum, Buterin envisioned a future where programmers could build decentralised applications on the Ethereum network and release them to the public. These would include DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations), ERC-20 tokens, and Oracles.

However, Buterin admits he failed to catch the NFT wave:

Crypto and Stablecoin Adoption on the Rise

Buterin started his thread by saying he had visited Argentina, where he noticed a rise in crypto and stablecoin adoption as more Argentinian businesses were operating with USDT.

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Argentina is one of the many examples of how crypto and blockchain technology can be used to combat rising fiat hyperinflation. In a 2013 article, Buterin wrote that cryptocurrencies could protect citizens against declining purchasing power and the reduction of wealth in countries such as Venezuela, Argentina and Iran:

Buterin went on to reflect on the negative impact of the “internationalisation and regulation” of Bitcoin, which he also predicted nearly 10 years ago:

My views today: sure, Bitcoin’s decentralisation would let it still “survive” under a super-hostile regulatory climate, but it could not “thrive”. Successful censorship resistance strategy requires a combination of technological robustness and public legitimacy.

Vitalik Buterin

‘The Internet Of Money Shouldn’t Cost More than 5 Cents’

The Twitter storm also served as the arena for both supporters and detractors of Ethereum. While Buterin claimed that his invention kickstarted the internet of money and that it is still working on scalability, some users fired back at him for the expensive gas fees on the network, which can take up to 50 percent.

Putting aside those discussions, Buterin ended the thread in claiming he had changed his mind about political organisations, saying he was “more naive then”.

On tech, I was more often right on abstract ideas than on production software dev issues. Had to learn to understand the latter over time. I have a deeper appreciation now of the need for even more simplicity than I thought we needed.

Vitalik Buterin

The Ethereum Exodus Continues

While Ethereum has become the largest DeFi ecosystem, its massive popularity has caused it to struggle due to enormous traffic on the platform, which in turn drives up gas fee prices.

This is the main reason why several projects, including NFTs, are moving to other networks to offset excessively high fees on the ETH blockchain, and to achieve a higher throughput.

Ether, however, is one of the most beloved cryptos for whales – as Crypto News Australia reported in August last year, over 43 percent of ETH circulation is in hands of whales, according to analytics platform Santiment.

José Oramas
Author

José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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