Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, arrived as a surprise guest at the end of the first day of the LaBitconf on Sunday (11), in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The founder of the Ethereum network was scheduled to speak on Saturday. However, following a last-minute notice from the event’s organizers, Buterin appeared on Friday, accompanied by the founder of ServiceMesher Jimmy Song, and several other experts.
The disagreements between Song and Vitalik go way back. Song can be described as a cryptocurrency “Maximalist” – Meaning that he believes that Bitcoin is the only legitimate digital asset.
Needless to say, this belief clashes directly with what the creator of the World’s second-largest cryptocurrency believes. And the disagreement between the two was transparent throughout their time at LaBitconf.
Song Claims Nearly Every Crypto is a S**tcoin, Including Ethereum
According to Song, bitcoin has a significant advantage over Ethereum. Contrary to the Ethereum network, it is not necessary for the user to go through a third-party actor, in order to run the cryptocurrency. “It’s as easy as that,” Song said when comparing the two blockchains.
“If somebody controls it, and can and change it to whatever the hell they like, then it’s a s**tcoin!” Jimmy Song claimed. “If you have to trust somebody, then it’s by definition ‘centralized”.
In an attempt at a rebuttal, Vitalik asked:
“Are you saying that the only reason why Ethereum token is a s**tcoin is that it is built on top of Ethereum, and not Bitcoin?”
As a response, Jimmy Song claimed that Ethereum, like all other currencies not named Bitcoin, has a “giant security hole.”
“You [Vitalik], and Ethereum Foundation can change the code whenever they want,” Song replied.
But Song did not stop there; he also claims that advanced programming knowledge is required to audit and verify Ethereum’s intelligent contracts. “[With bitcoin], there is no need to learn to verify,” says the ServiceMesher founder.
He finished his argument by reminding the audience that, in order to verify Ethereum’s code – one would need a high level of coding expertise, which according to him is not necessary for Bitcoin.
FTT, the definition of S**tcoin?
During the same event, the board of cryptocurrency experts discussed the most recent scandal surrounding the crypto community.
Vitalik and Jimmy Song both pondered about FTX’s dying token, “FTT”.
Song stated that the true issue about FTX, is that the exchange and its token required a high level of trust in its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried – and when that level of trust is broken, bad things tend to happen.
“People trusted FTX and FTX screwed the customers,” he said. “Really the culture of altcoins that basically make it normal to go and trust these people, trust personalities that are put up on a pedestal, they can do go wrong because they’re the intelligent dictator that will always do right by you.”
Meanwhile, Vitalik claimed that, just like everything in the world, 90% of the crypto space is “junk”.
“[some things] break because the trust isn’t even in the model at all.” Ethereum’s founder said. ” It’s trust in a guy that goes around, and wears a suit and gives himself the last name like ‘Bankman”. He said referring to FTX
