This article was published on April 30, 2019

Vitalik Buterin schools Elon Musk on Ethereum’s best use-cases

Has the trolling stopped?


Vitalik Buterin schools Elon Musk on Ethereum’s best use-cases

The most recent conversation between Elon Musk and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin seems to have shifted from trolling to legitimate discussion.

Earlier this morning, the Tesla founder mysteriously tweeted ā€œEthereum.ā€ Seven minutes later, he took it back with a cheeky ā€œjkā€ (ā€˜just kidding.ā€™)

Musk continued to poke fun, even after Buterin invited him to attend an Ethereum developerā€™s conference. Now, Musk actually asked Buterin a serious question: whatā€™s Ethereum good for?

ā€œAĀ globally accessible financial system, including payments, store of value, also more advanced stuff like insurance,ā€ said Buterin, beforeĀ referring to a smart contract system that would automatically file insurance claims for hurricane relief should extreme wind be nearby.

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Buterin then outlined anĀ idea to replace current Facebookā€™s sign-in function with Ethereum accounts. This supposedly removes intermediaries, but would only be worthwhile once workable decentralized recovery schemesĀ have been developed.

Curiously, Facebook has reportedly been recruiting engineers for a ā€˜secretiveā€™ blockchain division. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted replacingĀ Facebook Connect with a decentralized system.

Buterin went on to suggest a peer-to-peer marketplace for internet connections. He pitched identity, reputation, and credit systems for those with few resources, like refugees.

ā€œAll sorts of registries should be published on chain for security and easy verifiability,ā€ Buterin added. One potential example would be cryptographically verifiable university degreesĀ on the blockchain. These already exist.

Other suggestions were to experiment more with decentralized autonomous organizations, or use crypto-economics to prevent spam on social networks and reward publishers of good content.

It appears the chatter between Musk and Buterin has tapered off, at least for now. You can read the full thread here.

Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage atĀ TNW2019, our tech conference in Amsterdam.Ā Check it out.Ā 

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