Vivaldi boss assaults “unethical” cryptocurrencies
Vivaldi has turn out to be the most recent browser maker to take a stand in opposition to cryptocurrencies, arguing that they’re “nothing more than a pyramid scheme posing as currency”.
The broadside is available in a weblog submit from Vivaldi CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, by which he clarifies the corporate’s place on cryptocurrencies in no unsure phrases.
“Cryptocurrency has been touted by many as a revolution in currency, the future of investment, and a breakthrough technology,” von Tetzchner writes on the Vivaldi weblog. “But if you look beyond the hype, you’ll find nothing more than a pyramid scheme posing as currency.”
He criticizes the way in which cryptocurrencies are bought to budding traders. “Since cryptocurrencies are too volatile to be used as an actual currency, people treat it as a sort of investment scheme,” he writes.
“The problem is that to extract actual money from the system you have to find someone willing to buy the tokens you are holding. And this is only likely to happen as long as they believe they will be able to sell them on to someone who’ll pay even more for them. And so on, and so on.”
“If at any point one stops being able to find people willing to buy those tokens on just the promise of them being worth more in the future, the whole scheme might well come crashing down, with the value of all tokens going to zero.”
Von Tetzchner additionally assaults the environmental harm brought on by cryptomining. “The energy usage of bitcoin alone is staggering, consuming as much electricity as some countries,” he writes. “And this is likely to keep increasing as the technology behind it does not and cannot scale in any reasonable way.”
“While so many of us are trying our best to reduce our carbon footprints, it feels counterproductive to indulge in technology that undoes that hard work,” he provides.
Although different browser makers comparable to Opera – which von Tetzchner co-founded earlier than acrimoniously splitting from the corporate – provide assist for cryptowallets, the Vivaldi boss says there’s no likelihood Vivaldi will go down the identical path.
“By creating our own cryptocurrency or supporting cryptocurrency-related features in the browser, we would be helping our users to participate in what is at best a gamble and at worst a scam,” he writes. “It would be unethical, plain and simple.”
Vivaldi’s stance follows the same resolution by Firefox-maker Mozilla earlier this month.
Mozilla drew criticism when it put out a tweet reminding followers that they might make donations in cryptocurrencies, prompting the corporate to shortly droop such donations.
“Starting today we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals,” the firm tweeted on January 6. “And as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency.”
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