Vitalik Buterin On Hardest Lessons Learned From Ethereum, Promoting Universal Basic Income And Elon Musk's Son 'Hurting' Him

Ethereum ETH/USD co-founder Vitalik Buterin took questions from the people he follows on Twitter on Wednesday and shared his thoughts on a variety of topics, not limited to cryptocurrency. Among those asking questions was Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk.

What Happened: Buterin said he was doing a random experiment on Twitter and only the 268 people he followed on the microblogging platform could reply to the tweet.

In reply to a question from Musk about what he felt "love" is, Buterin replied with a tongue-in-cheek, “X AE A-12 don’t hurt me" remark. X Æ A-12 is the name of Musk and his partner Claire Grimes’ fifteen-month-old son.

See also: How To Buy Ethereum (ETH)

Buterin replied to Turkish-American computer scientist Emin Gun Sirer that the hardest lesson he learned from the Ethereum experience was the difficulty to coordinate people in small groups, particularly when “huge incentive conflicts” are at play.

Ethereum’s use-case in non fungible tokens (NFTs) surprised him the most, while his confidence that the cryptocurrency will move to proof of stake (PoS) within a span of one to two years was proved wrong, Buterin added.

The Ethereum co-founder also believes that the cryptocurrency’s Proof of Humanity (PoH) — a social identity verification system for humans — is already helping to sustain a universal basic income (UBI) mechanism. However, “sinks” for the UBI token are a challenge, he added.

See Also: Why The Ethereum Rally Is More Fundamentally Driven Than Speculative

Why It Matters: Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has pioneered the concept of a blockchain smart contract platform. The cryptocurrency’s year-to-date gains are 414.68%, but it is down 14.2% from its all-time high of $4,362.35 reached in May.

NFTs are seen as a driver for Ethereum. Buterin has said he sees NFTs as holding more potential than simply becoming a “casino” for already wealthy celebrities.

Price Action: Ethereum is up 9.7% during the past 24 hours, trading at $3,757.14 at press time.

Read Next: Ethereum Shoots For The Sky; Dogecoin, Bitcoin Follow Amid A Broader Crypto Rally

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