- Vitalik Buterin defended a new hire with an ironic post.
- Frustrated Ethereum users lashed out.
- Communism vs. 'Degen Communism.'
When Vitalik Buterin speaks, the crypto community listens.
But when the 31-year-old co-founder of Ethereum tweeted, “make communism great again” on Wednesday to his 5.7 million followers, surely he didn’t expect such vitriol.
“Fuck communism and fuck communists,” quipped Viktor Bunin, Coinbase’s protocol specialist.
“I quit,” declared Ameen Soleimani, founder of MolochDAO and Oxbow, the privacy protocol.
“Communism is as bad as fascism,” tweeted Anatoly Yakavenko, the co-founder of Solana.
The trigger for all this acrimony? A new hire at the Ethereum Foundation.
make communism great again
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 12, 2025
Milady
On Monday, Devansh Mehta, a crypto governance specialist, announced he was joining the non-profit organisation that tends to the second most valuable blockchain network in the world.
His job: to lead initiatives working with cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.
It was a big move for Mehta.
He previously worked within the Arbitrum governance ecosystem and at Gitcoin, the grants programme that’s funded open-source crypto projects and humanitarian aid since 2017.
Yet amidst the congratulatory notes, Soleimani said, “Please don’t be another Gitcoin commie.”
That was apparently too much for Buterin, who has been labouring in recent months with other Ethereum leaders to revamp the foundation’s practices.
Even though his tweet was tongue-in-cheek, it hit a nerve with a blockchain community that has grown increasingly edgy as Ethereum misses the greatest bull market in crypto history.
The value of Ether has slipped about 1% in the last 12 months compared to a 90% jump for Bitcoin and a 69% hike for Solana, Ethereum’s archrival, according to CoinGecko data.
People keep shitting on Vitalik, and perhaps eventually he gets frustrated.
— Joseph Lubin
Ethereum’s underperformance has triggered frustration in DeFi’s deepest community and a lot of finger-pointing.
“That’s about price and portfolio, in my opinion, as much as politics,” the pseudonymous founder of angel investment group West Ham Capital 303 told DL News.
Bloated budget
Many Ethereum community members have complained on X that the foundation has a bloated budget and headcount, doesn’t provide enough support for developers on the network, and has failed to realise the potential of its stash of $900 million in ETH.
In response, the Swiss non-profit organisation has started restructuring.
It is increasing the level of technical expertise among its leadership, recruiting new talent, and actively supporting developers on the network.
Mehta got caught in the crossfire.
The irony is that Buterin wasn’t referring to actual communism but rather so-called Degen Communism. It’s a hodge-podge of ideas but its central tenet calls for using crypto to benefit the greater good.
“There are left-wingers at the Ethereum Foundation and Gitcoin, including some whose worst day in life was Trump’s re-election,” Mehta said on X.
“I don’t agree with them at all but still find value if they are good at their job.”
Many critics appeared to have not realised Buterin was referring to Degen Communism rather than Karl Marx’s theory.
Lubin weighs in
Joseph Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum and the CEO of Consensys, came to Buterin’s defence.
“People keep shitting on Vitalik, and perhaps eventually he gets frustrated and provocatively and ironically lashes out with a preposterous statement,” he said on X.
The Ethereum Foundation also reacted quickly, appealing to the market’s baser desires.
The organisation just ploughed nearly $120 million into various decentralised finance projects, including Spark, Aave, and Compound.
A spokesperson for the Foundation declined to comment to a request for comment.
Liam Kelly is a Berlin-based reporter for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.