Ethereum Meets Ideological Crossroads With Popular Celeb Tokens
Wintermute co-founder Evgeny Gaevoy spoke strongly about the leadership of Ethereum and their approach to building the blockchain. He believes that if Ethereum fails in the future, it will be due to management rather than technical limitations.
So the ongoing debate around celeb coins seems to have intensified again.
Gaevoy points to a contradiction in Ethereum's goals as a reason. According to him, the “elite” of Ethereum, including Vitalik Buterin, appear to have a socialist ideology, even though they are building technology that is inherently capitalist-friendly.
There is big money in the game.
Gaevoy argues that these approaches are fundamentally different. Ethereum believes that capitalism cannot be built while showing the results of socialism and calls on leaders to choose sides.
The leader of Wintermuth expressed a great inclination towards the profitable aspects of the digital economy. His reasons are based on looking at blockchain technology. He observed that the technology in this field was “surprisingly excellent for creating systems based on purely capitalist incentives.”
“You're either building capitalism or you're planning socialism,” Gevoy said. “I prefer capitalism in all its (often ugly!) glory. And if you're not here for glory, one simple argument – unlike socialism, capitalism actually works.
Gevoy's views come amid the ongoing debate surrounding celebrity memecoins. The trend has drawn criticism from several crypto figures and members, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.
Recently on Twitter, Buterin expressed his displeasure with celebrity memecoins, saying they don't value the community. He believes that funding efforts should have objectives that benefit society, such as healthcare, open source software, and the arts.
They just want the money!
In response to Buterin's comment, singer Iggy Azalea, who recently joined the celeb memecoin trend, tweeted a sarcastic post. The post showed a picture of Iggy breastfeeding her baby in front of Buttery.
Azalea's post received criticism from Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap. While more neutral on celebrity meme coins, Adams criticized Azalea's response to Buterin and suggested that profits from such enterprises could be used for social causes.
Wintermutt's co-founder said he sided with Azalea in this debate. However, Gevoy's argument also caused controversy. Some crypto members believe that Buterin's stance on celeb coins does not mean that Ethereum is following a socialist path.
In response, Gaevoy's main principle is important. He opted for reforming capitalism to solve his problems and had little interest in principles that seemed to use capitalism as a secondary weapon.
On-chain data shows that Azalea's mother Iggy (mother) token moved above $0.1272 on June 6, bucking the downward trend in other celebrity meme coins.
Mother Iggy (mother) rose by 134.70% in the last 7 days, which exceeded the global cryptocurrency market and the same meme cryptocurrencies decreased by 5.30%.
In the past few days, the market has seen celebrities and KOLs from various industries rushing to launch their own tokens. With the popularity and ease of token creation, these influencers can easily create tokens and then aggressively promote them on their social media accounts, where they have a large following.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) and fan support can drive these token prices higher, bringing in fresh cash for influencers. However, the result is often that uninformed users lose their investment and see no profit.
If we accept a more positive view, Buterin may simply be expressing his personal preference and view of cryptocurrency, which is not affected by the ongoing financial activities of celebrities.
Certain stages are necessary in any economic development to lay the foundation for higher level objectives. While the financial gains are more tangible, some of Buterin's points emphasize the benefits to humanity in less obvious ways. Therefore, in the long run, the co-founders of Ethereum and Wintermut can find a common understanding.
