Crypto should be about freeing people, not esoteric tech — Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin’s presentation at the EthCC event comes amid an inflection point for the crypto industry as it attempts to reconcile growth and the Cypherpunk ethos.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech at EthCC on Wednesday, asking blockchain developers to focus on freeing humanity through their inventions rather than building more technically advanced tools.

Buterin compared the individual liberty ethos of the early internet in the 1990s to the current ethos in blockchain, noting that the free and open internet championed by early digital rights advocate John Perry Barlow was lost in the Web2 era.

The Ethereum co-founder characterized Web2 as a collection of “walled gardens,” warning the audience that many of the Web2 founders, who have since become known for censorship policies, framed themselves as freedom advocates in the early days. Buterin cautioned Web3 founders not to fall into the same trap:

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