Ethereum Co-Founder Tells Binance CEO Crypto Can Do More Than Reform Money

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has told Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao that cryptocurrencies can do more than just “reform money,” adding the crypto community should expand beyond the finance mentality.

In a tweetstorm, the co-founder of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization argued that some of the most popular narratives in the cryptocurrency space do not apply to this year’s crisis. Per Buterin, while Bitcoin was created n the aftermath of a global financial crisis in 2008, this year we’re dealing with a “virus crisis,” a crisis related to epistemology, and one of “overbearing policing.”

As a result, he said, the narrative bitcoiners user surrounding inflation is not the best one to use right now, taking into account that while the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has been growing, inflation isn’t.

Yes, the money printer did go brrrrr. But that’s a relatively small portion of what is going on, and even there inflation is still going *down* not up.https://t.co/ZfRiHASsMX

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 2, 2020

Buterin added, pointing to the March crash in equity markets and in the cryptocurrency space, that Bitcoin and other cryptos are also not uncorrelated to traditional assets, as at the time both dropped significantly. While Bitcoin has since recovered to give investors positive returns YTD, the S&P 500 has been struggling to climb back up to its highs.

Nevertheless, Buterin argued that it is time for the cryptocurrency community to understand “finance is relatively less important this decade than it was in the last decade,” and adjust to this new reality. The co-founder of ETH added his cryptocurrency already has various applications that go beyond finance, including governance, decentralized communities, censorship-resistant publishing and communication, and more.

Per his words, stablecoins have succeeded in the space because users are not trying to get away from the U.S. dollar, but are instead moving into the cryptocurrency environment to have more options on what they can do with their own money.

He then pointed to a tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao arguing “Bitcoin is the peaceful protest,” and claimed that “reforming money is not sufficient” and the crypto community needs to expand its mentality.

I will come out and say this directly: this mentality below is *exactly* what we should be expanding beyond right now. REFORMING MONEY IS NOT SUFFICIENT.https://t.co/2MakOIFSdB

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 2, 2020

Buterin went on to say that 2016-.2020 is a “period of ideological realignment. Many old ideologies and coalitions are dying, and many new ones being born. The hills and valleys on the battlefields are shifting.”

Featured image via Unsplash.