By Michael Scott
Vitalik Buterin currently prefers Farcaster, the decentralized option. At ETH Taipei, he clarified why he prefers it over Twitter.
In the chaotic period since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022, the tech mogul has seldom paid attention to the exit of famous advertisers and users from the platform due to new guidelines. Nevertheless, on March 25, he was sincerely curious regarding the declining presence of Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, on the platform. Buterin is also one of crypto’s most influential thought leaders.
Musk Questions Reasons for Buterin Exit
In response to an X post lamenting Buterin’s progressively infrequent platform utilization, Musk questioned why Buterin had left. The comment amassed numerous replies from crypto users speculating that increased bot activity or the platform’s lack of on-chain functionality were the reasons behind the move.
To get an answer, one should consider the comments made by Buterin some days ago at ETH Taipei regarding the matter. According to the crypto developer, people on X, including Musk, are highly irritating.
Buterin Preference for Decentralized Farcaster Protocol
When questioned regarding his reducing dependence on social platforms, Buterin said it is where extremely annoying people are found. As a Twitter alternative, Buterin has lately spent more time on Farcaster, a decentralized social media protocol that gained fame earlier this year.
On X, crypto users claimed that by preferring Farcaster, Buterin was ‘isolating himself with his preferred peers on an island’ rather than meeting the multitudes at their locations. Nevertheless, in Taipei, Buterin repelled such claims. He said that on Farcaster, he acquires higher-quality engagement. He also brushed off claims that utilizing Farcaster had led to self-insulation in a bubble with other crypto fans.
Buterin said that non-crypto persons should utilize it in ways that several earlier applications have not. Further, he claimed that it is a critical success to build on, and other decentralized apps should attempt to replicate.
Farcaster was developed in 2020 and has been quite ambiguous until late January. At this time, it unveiled Frames, a new feature that permits people to execute on and off-chain functions within Farcaster applications without moving to a third party. This includes playing games, generating nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and purchasing.
Data from Dune shows that since the Frames-prompted gush, usage on Farcaster has been relatively consistent, with a little over 1.5 million posts on the protocol every week. However, decentralized media still has some way to go. Compared to X, the numbers are pretty pale. According to Musk, the platform witnesses numerous posts daily.
Speaking to a room comprising reporters in Taipei, Buterin questioned whether anyone intended to post stories originating from the Farcaster session before tweeting them. He also said people must utilize their stuff.