In a one-of-a-kind scenario a crypto founder has decided to endorse his support for a known crypto critic as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin takes sides with gold advocate Peter Schiff after the latter reportedly lost control of his entire crypto life savings on Sunday.
Famous American trader and economist Peter Schiff, who is often put on a pedestal for his forthright, and at times, brutal opinions on the matters regarding investments, recently cried foul for losing control of his Bitcoin holdings. He took to Twitter to declare that he somehow managed to lose all Bitcoin by allegedly falling prey to a corrupt wallet.
Peter Schiff takes a jab at Bitcoin, instead of the wallet
However, as expected, he didn’t stop at just blaming wallet security. He went on to criticize Bitcoin, its market value and the overall hype surrounding it by rubbishing it off as worthless, and that did not go down well with many of his followers. Schiff received massive backlash from the crypto community.
While some claim that he failed to back up his seed phrase at the time of creating the wallet, which is the first and most crucial precaution every Bitcoin owner takes, and instead decided to blame the asset for a fault of his own, others believe that it was a cheap stunt to put down Bitcoin’s credibility as a safe asset.
While that could be true, it is also a fact that this isn’t the first time the security of a crypto wallet is questioned. Last year, the blockchain trading platform Bittrex came under the axe after an account user reported a loss of Bitcoin worth one million US dollars ($1 million). Indeed, cases like these are plenty, and therefore, Ethereum founder and crypto entrepreneur is making a public case for ensuring the security of the crypto wallet.
Schiff finds unexpected support in Ethereum founder Buterin
Buterin slammed Schiff’s critics by stating that he is shocked and saddened by the kind of reactions the latter has received so far. According to him, cryptocurrency wallets could use enhanced security through social recovery.
It is not entirely upon the owner to back up the seeds. If anything, it is a glaring loophole in the system that suggests that technology needs to be more user-friendly and straightforward, Buterin argued.
Unfortunately for this young programmer, though, his comments were not well-received by many Twitter users, which some claim to be Bitcoin opportunists. Besides accusing Ethereum of being highly centralized, Blockstream’s CSO, Samson Mow, stated that the only social recovery tool Ethereum uses is to call Buterin up. Many also criticized the proposed social recovery process for being a potential risk to the user’s close community, such as his friends, family and other contacts.
Clearly, the Ethereum founder has failed to strike the right chord this time. That said, he is right about one thing though, the technology needs to be better prepared for eventualities.
Featured Image by Flickr
