On June 1, 26 computer scientists, software engineers, and technologists from different companies published a letter to US lawmakers, expressing their concerns about the crypto sector.
Related: Buterin Said How to Create Algo Stablecoins That Will Last
With the letter they urged Congress to be critical, and skeptical about web 3 and cryptos. They said not to view the industry as if it is an innovative technology that is entirely good. According to the writers, the Senate needs to resist the pressure from crypto supporters to build a regulatory haven for these "risky, flawed, and unproven digital financial instruments". Instead, there is a need to take steps that protects the public interest and ensures tech serves properly for ordinary citizens.
A big difference between the "new idealistic movement" scene 10-15 years ago vs today is that back then it felt possible to be on all the good-guy teams at the same time. Today, much more adversarial thinking and conflict.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 2, 2022
I've been trying to understand.. where to from here?
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin shared his opinion about the letter. He published an extensive Twitter thread analyzing the letter and expressed his thoughts about technologies. Buterin agreed that there are important problems, but much of the pessimism is narrative, not reality. He mentioned that crypto is one of the successful technologies of the last 20 years as it has made money transfer easier and given many people access to robust savings tools.
Buterin also mentioned that it makes him sad to see the way the crypto community has grown much more adversarial over the last 10 or 15 years.