Vitalik Buterin Ethereum’s head honcho and top voice in the crypto space has countered Micro Strategy’s Co-founder Michael Saylor on the concept of self-custody and the role of regulated public entities in the crypto industry.
The Ukranian Crypto Billionaire reacted to Michael Saylor suggesting in an interview that crypto users should use big banking institutions to hold custody over Bitcoin.
Buterin reacted to Michael Saylor’s comments calling them Bat shit insane while pointing out that regulated public entities are already engaged in holding Bitcoin and their role in the crypto space should exceed that.
“ I probably did more than most to spread the “mountain man” trope (btw I consider those remarks of mine outdated; snarks and AA changed the tradeoff space completely), and I’ll happily say that I think @saylor‘s comments are batshit insane.
He seems to be explicitly arguing for a regulatory capture approach to protecting crypto (“When you have regulated public entities like Blackrock and Fidelity and … holding the asset, all the lawmakers and law enforcement arms are invested in those entities”). There’s plenty of precedent for how this strategy can fail, and for me, it’s not what crypto is about.” Vitalik Buterin Tweeted
Vitalik Buterin in his argument explained the importance of Self Custody and why he thinks that the idea of Regulatory capture as touted by Michael Saylor is bad news for crypto and stands against what crypto stands for.
Regulatory capture implies regulated Public entities holding digital assets so regulators and law enforcement might be more involved in them
Vitalik Buterin believes this approach as proposed by Michael Saylor might eventually lead to these public entities taking over Bitcoin leading to crypto assets losing their decentralized nature.
Bitcoin custody firm Casa’s chief security officer Jameson Lopp agreed with Vitalik Buterin’s stance while shedding more light on the role of self-custody in the crypto space.
Jameson Loop shed more light on the debate by listing the importance of self-custody in the crypto space while warning about the downsides of Third-party custodians let alone Public entities playing that role.
“ Bitcoin self-custody isn’t just about being a paranoid mountain man. There are many long-term negative ramifications to convincing people to trust third-party custodians.
1. Centralizing coins into a few hands increases the systemic risk of loss and seizure.
2. Bitcoiners get disenfranchised from participating in governance activities like running nodes or trading forks.
Self-custody is not merely important to individual Bitcoin holders. It’s important for the continued strengthening and improvement of the entire network. Jameson tweeted
Despite the argument, Michael Saylor remains a trusted voice in crypto and remains the chairman of Microstrategy Group the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin. Microstrategy holds about 252,220 BTC.
On Personal grounds, Michael Saylor revealed in August 2024 that he owns over $1 billion worth of BTC.
Vitalik Buterin on the other hand is also a Crypto Billionaire with networth estimated to be slightly above $1 billion.