Any attempt at being too friendly has its risks, said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin who warned hubs against accidentally attracting figures like Luna's Do Kwon.
While there is strong potential for any government attempting to capitalize on the crypto opportunity, excessive friendliness also has the potential to attract unwanted players.
«The biggest risk of being friendly is if you end up, like, attracting the terrible people,» explained Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in an interview with «Straits Times».
«The thing with the crypto space is it’s very high variance. And the problem is that if you get a certain kind of reputation, it’s very easy to accidentally attract all of the Do Kwons. In Singapore, it’s definitely true to some extent that the crypto space has not been sending its best, right? Do Kwon actually himself spent some time here.»
Singapore: Striking a Balance
Despite the negative crypto headlines, Buterin said he welcomed the balanced approach that Singapore was currently taking.
«I definitely appreciate the amount of effort that they’ve been putting into it and their willingness to explore many different kinds of application and be supportive,» he said about the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
«I guess the line that they’re trying to take is that they’re trying to discourage cryptocurrency speculation but they’re not actually banning it. People here who want to buy, sell and have cryptocurrencies still can if they want to.»
El Salvador: Unsustainable Approach
But Buterin was not positive on crypto in all countries, highlighting El Salvador and the Bitcoin community’s support as a case of unsustainable adoption.
«This is one of my criticisms of the Bitcoin community, for example. They just automatically love everyone rich and powerful who supports Bitcoin,» Buterin explained, referencing El Salvador’s decision to legalize Bitcoin as legal tender last year.
«[A] lot of Bitcoin people just kind of ignored the fact that El Salvador, or at least [Nayib Bukele's] government, is very not democratic that actually has a lot of problems and are not good at respecting people’s freedom.»
