Following a tweet by the New York University professor, Nouriel Roubini stating that Vitalik Buterin and co-founder Joe Lubin “stole 75 percent of Ethereum to become billionaires, Buterin has refuted the claims.
In the tweet, Roubini in a bid to prove that cryptocurrencies make individuals gain undeserved wealth wrote,
“@VitalikButerin was the ring-leader – together with Joe Lubin – of the criminal pre-mining sale/scam that created Ether. They stole 75% of the Ether supply and became instant “billionaires” of fake wealth.”
Roubini Believes Ether Was Premined
The tweet and its claims that Buterin owns 75 percent of all Ethereum in circulation caused a storm in Twitter. Many crypto enthusiasts were eager to reads of Buterin’s rebuttal and as usual, the Ethereum founder did not disappoint.
Even though there are no laws against pre-mining of digital currencies, the moral implication can have devastating effects on the coin and the reputation of the founders.
This is especially the concern of many when Roubini linked Buterin to the issue. Buterin has been one of the most vocal leaders in the crypto industry.
His emphasis has been that the community lays more emphasis on organic adoption of cryptocurrencies by developing dApps with practical utility and not focuses on making wealth.
Buterin Clears The Air
In his response to Roubini’s tweet, Buterin stated that he had never laid claims to more than 0.9 percent of all ethers in circulation. This does not put him anywhere near the billion dollar range.
A look at the ETH address provided by Buterin shows that his official Ethereum wallet shows that it contains 365,000 coins which is still far below the 102 million ether Roubini claimed he skimmed off before the network was made accessible to the public.
Investors are usually concerned about issues such as this. The reason is that everyone wants to make sure that a level playing ground was provided before making investments.
At current market price, Buterin’s ether coins are valued at $75 million and not the billions as supposed by Roubini whose tweet got the majority of the Twitter community against the co-founders.
Buterin’s coins would have been valued $511 million in January when the coin valuation was $1,400. This still kept him below the billionaire status.
Investors Demand Trust
Ethereum World surmised the Roubini – Buterin saga in a post in which was written,
“The real problem is the perception of unearned wealth that the general public is likely to associate with cryptocurrency founders and early adopters. While no one faults CEOs and early partners in blue chip stocks for attaining a massive amount of wealth through their holdings, crypto is in danger of the appreciation that comes through market buyers and leads to overnight billionaire status.”
It would be a relief to the community that Buterin has continued to be one of the leaders that have continued to act in the best interest of the growth of the industry. The Roubini allegation has reinforced that fact.
