Vitalik Buterin — the co-founder of Ethereum, a digital currency and dapp (decentralized app) development platform — deleted tweets from his verified Twitter account Monday night that seemed to defend the idea of legalizing child pornography.
In a series of tweets, Buterin argued that “doing heroin imposes risks on others,” while “simple possession of child porn does not,” and declared, “I don’t see legalizing *possession* of child porn as more radical than heroin.”
This tweet came in response to criticism of Rick Falkvinge, a former Bitcoin advocate who has since shifted his support to the newly derived “Bitcoin Cash” currency. Fans of the original Bitcoin have attacked Falkvinge for an essay he wrote in 2012 arguing for the legalization of child pornography. When Buterin congratulated Bitcoin Cash for briefly overtaking Ethereum’s market capitalization in a wild weekend of digital currency trading, Twitter users brought up Falkvinge’s advocacy in responses to the tweet. Buterin then seemed to defend Falkvinge’s ideas.
After Buterin was asked by a user whether he could “name any benefits that would come with legalizing the possession of child porn,” he replied, “Establishing a general norm that ‘a person’s laptop is an extension of their mind, and is inviolate’ can IMO have social benefits.”
Following heavy criticism, Buterin deleted the posts.
Buterin has previously stated, “Censorship is great if you can guarantee that the good guys are in charge,” while last week, a “wallet bug” froze more than $150 million worth of Ethereum.
Ethereum, which was released in 2015, is still the second most popular decentralized digital currency after Bitcoin with a current market capitalization of $31.8 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.
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