Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg may have big plans in the cryptocurrency space, but Vitalik Buterin believes they are unlikely to get too much attention.
Buterin Doubts Mr Dorsey’s Plans to Start Decentralized Financial Services Using Bitcoin
Widely regarded as the inventor of the world’s most widespread blockchain, Ethereum, the engineer expressed doubts about Square CEO Mr Dorsey’s plan to have the company start a new business focused on decentralized financial services using Bitcoin.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Mr Buterin said that the largest cryptocurrency actually does not have this function as it is primarily designed as “home currency”.
Buterin, who is one of the most famous developers of crypto said:
“On Ethereum there’s native functionality that allows you to essentially directly put ETH or Ethereum-based assets into these smart contracts, into these lockboxes, where there are arbitrary conditions that can govern how those assets get released.”
“Jack [Dorsey] basically had to create his own system to enforce these rules.”
Buterin Also Distrust Zuckerberg’s Idea of Transforming Facebook into a Metaverse Company
The idea of Mr Zuckerberg’s decision to transform Facebook into a “Metaverse Company” was also suspected by the cryptocurrency tycoon. “Metaworld” refers to the vision of a virtual world supported by the Internet, in which people have virtual images and interact with digital assets and even tangible objects through augmented reality.
Mr Buterin said that Mr Zuckerberg is clearly trying to predict the next phase of the internet: “Before the rest of the world goes any other direction, Facebook will be left a bit behind.” He pointed out that Mr Zuckerberg was also on the widely censored one of Facebook supported cryptocurrency project Libra – which is now called Diem – was involved.
Mr Buterin said there was “a huge distrust” of Facebook that building your own platform could prove unfortunate. He suggested that Mr Zuckerberg should build on the existing blockchain.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency have developed rapidly over the past decade, and their concepts have started to challenge key players in finance, technology, and consumer goods.
Established companies from Facebook and Twitter to JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have been exploring ways to incorporate blockchain into their existing businesses. In this area, however, many young, fast-growing companies have emerged that show the potential for disruption.
Mr Buterin said that blockchain technology poses a major threat to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. He said we can see that incumbents ultimately lost to upstarts.
He continues to make ambitious plans for the Ethereum network. When asked where he has seen it in 5 to 10 years, Mr Buterin replied, “I hope to lead the meta-universe.”
