Vitalik Buterin, founder of ethereum.John Phillips/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Vitalik Buterin shared crazy online criticism about him, and asked Twitter for more examples Thursday. The ethereum co-founder got thousands of answers, on topics from his supposed secret cabal to Ripple. The 27-year-old is no stranger to trolling, despite spearheading forward-thinking crypto projects. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared some of the nuttiest personal attacks, bordering on conspiracy theories, that he’s ever received — and asked his Twitter followers for more.
“What are the craziest and most unhinged criticisms of me you’ve seen on Twitter or elsewhere?” he asked in a tweet Thursday.
“Here are a few good ones, I wonder what else people have seen that I haven’t!”
Buterin himself posted screenshots of comments describing him as an “alien crackhead” and a “Bond villain.”
The young crypto pioneer’s own father jumped with some of the wackier things he’d seen online — such as that his son was a KGB operative working for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Buterin was born in Russia, and his family emigrated to Canada when he was a child.
He has received over 2,400 responses in the last 20 hours, which touched on topics from his supposed secret ethereum cabal to rumours of his immortality. Another took issue with a purported comment on Ripple.
Some Twitter users took the opportunity to share more lighthearted responses, with many using memes to poke fun at missed deadlines for the eth 2.0 network updates, and similar teasing.
Joanie Lemercier’s positive tweet.Twitter/@JoanieLemercier
Even though Buterin has spearheaded some of the most forward-thinking crypto projects in recent years, the 27-year-old is no stranger to criticism. Some people have taken ethereum development delays and network issues as reasons to go on the attack.
This isn’t the first time that Buterin has shared some of the harsher commentary he receives, In 2017, he tweeted: “Achievement unlocked: have been compared to Hitler by 2 different Reddit trolls!”
John Lilic, product investment advisor at Polygon, is one of those who have pointed out the trolling endured by Buterin is a serious problem in the crypto world. Fervent supporters in one digital clan will turn on others — ethereum’s creator has come in for abuse from bitcoin fans, for instance — and conspiracy theories can run wild.
In defense of Buterin, Lilic said the crypto creator has “been working to make the space better since almost day zero.”