Vitalik Buterin published a blog post this week urging voters not to vote for a candidate solely based on their pro-crypto stance.
Commentators took this to mean "vote for Biden, not for Trump."
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson openly rejected Buterin's stance and criticized the idea.
Ryan Seikis, the founder of Messari, took things even further by attacking everyone from Warren to Gensler.
Seikis thinks Buterin is the “most naive and useless political commentator he has ever seen."
Tweets are now private, but the internet is flooded with screenshots.
The upcoming US elections have quickly become crypto-centric following the SEC's regulatory reign of terror against crypto in the last five years.
For years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has gone after everything from companies to crypto-affiliated individuals, leading to confusion and frustration in the industry.
Former US president and Bitcoin critic Donald Trump recognized this vacuum and has pivoted towards support for crypto.
In the months before writing, Trump has launched NFTs, held private meet-and-greets for crypto enthusiasts, courted miners and has announced plans to give crypto a place in the US once again—all the while accepting campaign donations in crypto.
Despite the “Trump is pro-crypto” and “Biden is anti-crypto” agenda, however, things remained largely civil.
Until Thursday this week.
On Wednesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a blog post, outlining the dangers of voting for candidates based on pro-crypto promises alone.
Voting should instead be based on a candidate's outlook on issues such as privacy, freedom of communication, freedom of thought, and access to information.
Buterin cited Russia's crypto stance as an example, highlighting the country's pro-crypto stance when it came to evading sanctions and its anti-crypto stance when it came to the surveillance of its citizens.
Buterin pointed out that while a candidate may be pro-crypto now, there is no assurance that they will remain so.
While the post made no mention of any candidate, commentators took this as an open endorsement “for Biden” and “against Trump”.
“Vitalik wrote a 10 page paper to explain why he’s a lib” one of them commented, with another saying “Los*r is only saying this now that his preferred political allegiances are f*mbling the ball hard.”
Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson also weighed in on the matter, openly rejecting Buterin's stance by saying, "Politics is a game of cause and effect. If politicians understand that bullying and harassing our industry translates to lost elections, they avoid doing that" and finishing with, "A vote for Biden is a vote for the death of the American crypto industry. Vote for pro-crypto candidates.”
Still, most interactions remained civil—at least until Messari founder, Ryan Seikis walked in.
Seikis, who rarely holds back on Twitter, came into the conversation on Thursday, hurling insults at everyone from Buterin to Gary Gensler, Elizabeth Warren and anyone remotely Biden-affiliated.
"Anyone that votes against Trump at this point can die in a f*cking fire," he began, right from when the Trump shooting happened.
Voting against Trump
Under Vitalik Buterin’s tweet, he commented that the Ethereum co-founder is “the most naive and useless political commentator he has ever seen”.
He directed another jab at anti-crypto US senator Elizabeth Warren, stating, "Physiognomy doesn't lie ..." and attaching a picture of Warren, side by side with Trump's shooter.
“Physiognomy doesn't lie ..."
For context, physiognomy is a practice of making assumptions about a person's character based solely on how they look.
He replied to another tweet from Securities and Exchange Commission boss Gary Gensler, saying, "We're so close to your inevitable jail sentence, I can almost taste it."
Seikis' tweets got so bad that Suji Yan, founder of Mask Network, commented, "This is retarded. Will stop all potential deals with Messari” after the Messari founder made anti-immigration statements against another Twitter user.
Seikis has made his Twitter profile private and visible only to his 354,000 followers.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information but will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.