Vitalik Buterin calls El Salvador’s Bitcoin legalization ‘foolhardy’

Vitalik Buterin criticised El Salvador’s decision to recognise Bitcoin as an official monetary unit. The Ethereum founder emphasised that the process of forcing the integration of digital assets into the financial system runs counter to the ideals of freedom that the crypto community should value.

“Forcing businesses to accept a certain digital currency runs counter to the ideals of freedom that the crypto community should value. Moreover, the tactic of distributing BTC among millions of Salvadorans with virtually no prior training is reckless and risks a large number of innocent people being hacked or deceived. Shame on everyone (alright, I’ll name the main culprits: shame on Bitcoin maximalists) who uncritically praise him [President Nayib Bukele],” Buterin wrote on Reddit.

In early September in El Salvador the law recognising Bitcoin as legal tender took effect.

One user asked whether Buterin would say the same about Ethereum supporters if President Nayib Bukele had made a similar decision regarding the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. He said that he had repeatedly criticised “users and applications.”

The Ethereum founder is not the only one to oppose Bitcoin’s legalization in El Salvador. Earlier, crypto analyst Mr. Whale described digital gold as the government’s ‘Trojan Horse’, and what happened as Satoshi’s worst nightmare.

Earlier in October, El Salvador began mining Bitcoin using geothermal energy.

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