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Vitalik Buterin was recently at Devcon4 and released an interview with Quartz in which he said some things about Ethereum in general.
For example, he believes that a "computer of the world" is still a valid way to describe the Ethereum project: "a shared computing environment on which anyone can build and manage content is still an absolutely legitimate and valuable thing to underline".
He spoke of a phenomenon in which he believes that people who get excited about the blockchain then inadvertently find a way to integrate it with their activities, which he described as "a lot of wasted time". Then he went somehow offensive, when he was asked what in particular was a waste of time:
"A lot of great business blockchain things, I read this article about CoinDesk on some blockchain from IBM, I do not understand that deeply, but the detail that came up is that they're saying" Hey, we own all IPs and this is basically the our platform and you're getting there. "And how, that's it[…]absolutely not the point[…]"
He was talking, of course, about the many blockchain initiatives of IBM, including those related to food, as reported by CCN. Buterin seems to annoy the idea that multinational corporations possess blockchain intellectual property, which is not surprising given the open nature of the Ethereum protocol and the open source of almost all cryptocurrency codes. He went on to say that there is value in the initiatives, but he believes that the companies that are doing so probably do not do it the right way.
"There's definitely something there, but regardless of whether any of the actors are doing it remotely, I'm much less confident."
When asked what are the most valid applications of blockchain technology, Buterin has much more to say. For one, he believes that cryptocurrencies and payment systems are the main and most valid application of blockchains. He also said that, in his view, the things that are best suited for the blockchain will be for the most part "purely digital" things.
"I feel that real utilities in space will begin to approach things that are more purely digital."
This recently echoes a statement by the co-founder of NEO Da Feng, in which he stated that the game was probably the next big frontier of blockchain, a statement that has been demonstrated in action by more than one company. Of course, there are digital properties that can be protected by blockchain outside of game objects, such as account information and access, some of which can benefit from blockchain censorship resistance.
Buterin also said that his favorite blockchain application at the moment is "this thing in Singapore" which aims to validate university degrees, which sounds similar to a NEM project in Malaysia, but could refer to this project by Rice University students.
Featured image of Flickr / TechCrunch.
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