“Great” and PayPal, Venmo Integration Boosts Adoption

• Vitalik Buterin defends the Ethereum Name Service as a valuable tool.
• Brantly Millegan warns Buterin about backlash, leading to playful exchanges and debates on PoW vs. PoS.
• The exchange involved comments on decentralization and online criticism within the crypto community.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Brantly Millegan, an advocate of the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), engaged in an X conversation about the Ethereum network and decentralization. The discussion soon escalated into a broader discussion on Ethereum’s direction.

ENS, a decentralized naming system on the Ethereum blockchain, simplifies transactions by providing readable names for crypto addresses. Instead of sending tokens to complex, long addresses, users can register easy-to-remember names, such as “vitalik.eth,” for smoother cryptocurrency transfers.

ENS: More Than Just ‘Good’

Millegan kicked off the conversation by expressing his “unpopular opinion” that ENS is “good.” Buterin countered, stating that there’s “nothing unpopular” about this view and emphasizing that ENS is “great” and has the potential to become even better.

Millegan playfully cautioned Buterin about the risk of being “canceled” for his positive views on ENS, given the skepticism from some critics. Buterin, known for his lighthearted approach, responded that he’s already familiar with being “canceled” by various groups, including those who disagree with his stance on proof-of-stake (PoS) versus proof-of-work (PoW) and other contentious topics. Buterin jested by listing other groups that have criticized him, saying:

“You see, the people who insist only PoW is truly decentralized, the ones who disagree with my stance on synthetic wombs, the anti-vaxxers… just imagine what happens when they all try to cancel me at the same time.”

Meanwhile, MeanHash, another X user, responded to Buterin’s tweet with a GIF expressing disagreement. Undeterred, Buterin fired back with a playful image of a cartoon duck holding a sign that read, “PoS is more decentralized than PoW.” 

Buterin’s lighthearted comments reflected the diverse and sometimes contentious debates within the crypto community.

PayPal and Venmo Embrace ENS

In a related development, PayPal and Venmo have integrated the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) into their platforms, according to an announcement from ENS Labs on Tuesday.

With this integration, PayPal and Venmo users can now enter a recipient’s ENS name directly in the search field when sending crypto. This allows the platforms to automatically identify the associated wallet addresses. 

Initially available to U.S. users, this feature aims to reduce errors in crypto transactions and simplify wallet address management. Previously, users had to manually type, paste, or scan QR codes of external wallets for transactions on these platforms.