Vitalik Buterin Criticizes Geolocation Feature in X

Vitalik Buterin criticizes X's new geolocation feature as a privacy threat.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has labeled the new feature of social network X, which reveals a user’s country, as “risky.”

I thought about this more and I think responders are right that revealing the country non-consensually without offering any opt-out option (not even “stop using your account”) is wrong.

In most cases, revealing country still leaves a very large anonymity set, but there are some…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 23, 2025

The platform’s product director, Nikita Bier, announced the release of the feature on November 22, presenting it as a way to “ensure platform integrity.” 

According to Buterin, in the short term, the innovation will “bring many positive effects.” However, in the medium term, users will find ways to bypass checks using: 

• passports from different countries;
• mobile numbers for verification;
• IP addresses with the desired geolocation.

“Creating a million fake accounts with false locations will remain a challenging task, but creating one such account and boosting it to a million followers will become a relatively simple procedure,” the programmer noted.

Six months after implementation, “troll farms” will emerge, effectively based in random European countries but labeled as being in the US or UK. 

Managing partner of Cinneamhain Ventures, Adam Cochran, noted that “sophisticated actors” have long been using the methods described by Buterin.

Sophisticated actors already avoid it.

For over a decade Russian groups have used residential US proxies (which don’t get flagged by proxy detection), US prepaid sim numbers and even US purchased Android devices and prepaid credit cards to manage accounts.

This would have outed…

— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) November 23, 2025

“For over a decade, Russian groups have used American residential proxies (which are not detected by proxy systems), American prepaid SIM cards, and even US-purchased Android devices and credit cards to manage accounts,” he wrote.

The Ethereum co-founder also called the feature a privacy threat. 

“In most cases, revealing the country still leaves a wide field of anonymity for the user, but there are categories of people for whom even minimal information leakage is risky. Such users should not face sudden and irreversible privacy violations,” he stated.

Community Opinions 

The founder of Uniswap, Hayden Adams, also opposed the innovation. 

Thanks, I hate it

Opt-in doxxing is fine, mandatory doxxing is psychotic https://t.co/KvFIGy1VCc

— Hayden Adams 🦄 (@haydenzadams) November 23, 2025

“Voluntary disclosure of personal data is fine, mandatory is not,” he emphasized.

Technical director of the decentralized platform Summer.fi, Andrey David, also noted privacy issues: 

“The problem is not in showing the country, but in forced visibility without warning. Privacy features should always start with the least revealing settings.”

Cyfrin co-founder Patrick Collins stressed that “privacy is normal.” 

Some users pointed out the risks for participants in the cryptocurrency industry, who often face incidents. In January, unknown individuals kidnapped Ledger co-founder David Balland in France and demanded a ransom of €10 million ($10.4 million).

Last year, a foreigner was killed in Kyiv over digital assets. 

“Many of us maintain pseudonymity for safety reasons—not because we have something to hide, but because the crypto sphere attracts criminals. Such changes gradually erode privacy and put real people at risk,” wrote scam investigator known as Crypto Rug Muncher.

The new feature cannot be completely disabled. Users are advised to select “Show region/continent” in settings instead of a specific country. 

How to remove Account based in (country) ?

1. Open setting
2. Privacy and safety
3. About your account
4. use region/continent

Done guys 🫶🏻 https://t.co/9AumRrKmtJ pic.twitter.com/ZBBSTGarEd

— GE (@GuarEmperor) November 22, 2025

In April, Buterin called privacy the foundation of freedom. In November, he introduced a tool to enhance privacy in the ecosystem of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. 

Earlier, the Ethereum co-founder criticized the proposed EU “Chat Control” bill, stating that it threatens citizens’ rights to privacy in digital communications.