Vitalik Buterin Slams ETH Backer Peter Thiel

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took aim at controversial American entrepreneur Peter Thiel in his recent social media post. 

“Reminder that Peter Thiel is, to put it mildly, not a cypherpunk,” the 31-year-old computer programmer said. 

Thiel’s Straussian views

He attached an expert who discusses the philosophical framework of American scholar Leo Strauss, which argues in favor of surveillance and establishing a robust Pax Americana with the help of global intelligence cooperation. The text comes from “The Straussian Moment,” an influential essay written by Thiel that dissects the philosophical foundations of modern Western politics, criticizing the Enlightenment-era liberalism. 

Thiel has been highly influenced by Straussian philosophy. At Stanford, he studied within the intellectual circles of Harry Jaffa and Allan Bloom. He, of course, co-founded The Stanford Review, a controversial conservative paper shaped by Straussian themes. Moreover, Thiel has echoed Strauss’s criticism of democracy. 

This, of course, fully contradicts the anti-surveillance, anti-centralization cypherpunk ideology that underpins crypto. 

Making ETH more like BTC?

Buterin agrees that the Ethereum leadership should be more careful when deciding who they let into their circle. 

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It is worth noting that Thiel holds a 9.1% stake in BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum (ETH). On top of that, he also has a 7.5% stake in ETHZilla, which is another prominent ETH treasury firm. 

In fact, Buterin has spoken out in favor of “gradual ossification” of Ethereum, which means that large changes would be met with a lot of caution once scaling and tech cleanup are done.