Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin hit back at reports he said claimed he was a “pessimist” September 11, accusing media outlets of misrepresenting his views on cryptocurrency’s future.
Bloomberg Interview Raises Eyebrows
In a series of tweets, Buterin said coverage of his interview with Bloomberg September 8 had been “spun” to paint an overly negative view.
Commentators had reacted to one response Buterin had given in particular, in which he said the Blockchain industry was about to hit a “ceiling.”
“The blockchain space is getting to the point where there’s a ceiling in sight,” he had told the publication.
If you talk to the average educated person at this point, they probably have heard of blockchain at least once. There isn’t an opportunity for yet another 1,000-times growth in anything in the space anymore.
Reactions immediately began labeling Buterin as a doom-monger who thought the halcyon days of the entire cryptocurrency industry had come and gone.
Other sources considered the continued downward pressure on Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH), currently at its lowest price in over a year, was exacerbated by the comments.
Invoking TRON’s Justin Sun
“To be clear, I never said that there is ‘no room for growth’ in the crypto ecosystem. I said there is no room for *1000x price increases*,” he retorted on Twitter.
…What I *actually* said is that, because large portions of the population have already heard of crypto, further growth of crypto in any sense must come from *depth* (ie. actual usage), and not bringing in more attention.
He added thinly-veiled criticism of TRON founder Justin Sun, who subsequently committed to his cryptocurrency growth forecast.
I do believe the entire world wealth will turn into cryptocurrencies like blackhole and grow much bigger in the future. Cryptocurrency will hit 10 trillion USD market cap before @Apple and @amazon do. We will see. Time will tell. #TRON #TRX $TRX
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) September 12, 2018
Buterin has regularly hit out at industry press outlets for skewed reporting. In June, a UK tabloid reprinted comments he made on popular forum Bitcointalk in 2011 which suggested he thought the US National Security Agency had invented Bitcoin.
“My opinions have obviously changed a lot since then,” he retaliated, describing the article as “crazy misrepresentations.”
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