Wintermute co-founder Evgeny Gaevoy has voiced a strong critique of Ethereum’s leadership and their approach to building the blockchain. He believes that if Ethereum fails in the future, it will be due to its leadership rather than technical limitations.
So it looks like the ongoing debate surrounding celeb coins has intensified once again.
Gaevoy points to the contradiction in Ethereum’s goals as the reason. According to him, Ethereum’s “elite,” including Vitalik Buterin, are building a technology inherently suited to capitalism but seem to have a socialist ideology.
There Is Huge Cash In Play
Gaevoy argues that these approaches are fundamentally different. He believes Ethereum can’t build a capitalist system while aiming for socialist outcomes and calls for leaders to pick a side.
The Wintermute leader expressed a great inclination towards the profitable aspects of the digital economy. His reasons come from sharp observation of blockchain technology. He sees that technology in this field “is impressively super well conducive to create purely capitalist incentive-based systems”
“You are either building capitalism or planned socialism,” Gaevoy stated. “I choose capitalism in all its (often ugly!) glory. And if you are not here for glory, then one simple argument is – unlike socialism, capitalism actually works.”
Gaevoy’s standpoint comes amid ongoing debate surrounding celebrity memecoins. The trend has drawn criticism from many crypto figures and members, including. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
In a recent tweet, Buterin expressed discontent with celebrity memecoins, arguing they do not provide societal value. He believes financial endeavors should have purposes that benefit society, such as healthcare, open-source software, and the arts.
They Just Want The Money!
In response to Buterin’s comments, Iggy Azalea, a singer who recently joined the celeb memecoin trend, tweeted a sarcastic post. The post featured an image depicting Iggy as a mother breastfeeding a baby with the face of Buterin.
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 ventures could be used for social causes.
Wintermute’s co-founder said he was on Azalea’s side in this debate. However, Gaevoy’s arguments also drew disagreement. Some crypto members believe Buterin’s stance against celeb coins doesn’t mean Ethereum is pursuing a socialist path.
In response, Gaevoy said the core principle matters. He preferred capitalism with modifications to address its downsides and was less interested in principles that seemed to use capitalism as a secondary tool.
Data from the on-chain shows that Azalea’s Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token moved above $0.1272 on June 6, defying the downward trend in other celebrity meme coins.
Mother Iggy (MOTHER) has surged 134.70% over the past 7 days, outpacing the global cryptocurrency market and surpassing similar meme cryptocurrencies, which have declined by 5.30%.
Over the past few days, the market has witnessed a surge of celebrities and KOLs from various industries rushing to issue 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, which often have a large following.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) and support from fans can cause these token prices to skyrocket, attracting an influx of fresh money for influencers. However, the consequence is often that less informed users end up losing their investments and don’t see any profits.
If we adopt a more positive perspective, Buterin might simply be expressing his personal preference and vision for cryptocurrency, which remains unaffected by celebrities’ ongoing financialization activities.
Certain phases are necessary in any economic development to lay the groundwork for higher-level objectives. While financial gains are more tangible, some of Buterin’s points also highlight benefits for humanity, albeit in less obvious ways. Thus, in the long run, the co-founders of Ethereum and Wintermute might find common ground.
