Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, lashed out at the government of El Salvador for adopting Bitcoin. Buterin made his comments on the Reddit thread about President Nayib Bukele’s role and why he shouldn’t be called a hero. In the caption “Unpopular opinion: The crypto community should not praise El Salvador President Nayib Bukele,” Buterin said:
“The simpler and dumber hypothesis: both for political reasons and for being a human being like the rest of us, he likes to be praised by people he considers powerful (i.e. Americans). Bitcoin maximalists are a very easy-to-praise community: you just have to be in a position of power and do or say nice things about them and their coins.”
Buterin, who is closely followed by the crypto market, has also brought criticism to Bitcoin maximalists.
El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as a legal currency received different reactions from different people, the crypto community in general was delighted and supported El Salvador in adopting BTC. But mainstream media and opposition groups continued to warn the small Central American country of potential financial problems.
However, the Ethereum co-founder’s comments came as a shock to many. When asked whether he would criticize the Ethereum Maximalist if a country chooses ETH, Buterin pointed to numerous instances where he criticized Ethereum advocates.
Buterin also thinks that the development of El Salvador does not coincide with freedom:
“Requiring businesses to accept a particular cryptocurrency goes against the ideals of freedom that should be so important to the cryptocurrency space. Additionally, the tactic of forcing millions of Salvadorans to use BTC simultaneously, with almost no prior training, is irresponsible. Lots of innocent people can be hacked or scammed. Anyone who uncritically praises him should be ashamed.”