Vitalik Buterin on changes in the Ukrainian community and its contribution to the Ethereum ecosystem

• Vitalik Buterin attended the Incrypted Conference 2024.
• The Ethereum co-founder spoke with the Incrypted team and answered some questions.
• Buterin talked about how the Ukrainian crypto community has changed over the years and assessed its contribution to the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

On June 23, 2024, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin visited the Incrypted Conference in Kyiv, which was held as part of the Ukrainian Blockchain Week. The programmer spoke with our editors and answered some questions about the crypto industry in Ukraine.

Buterin noted that he first came to Kyiv two years ago at the Kyiv Tech Summit. Since then, a lot has changed in the country and the local community has come a long way in terms of development.

When asked how exactly the narratives in the Ukrainian community have changed, he said that developers have made tangible progress. They are creating new solutions, mastering complex technologies, and have generally become more mature.

“I was at ETH Kyiv yesterday, and I thought that the developers there were of very high quality. They asked some really detailed questions about things like how to work with builders and searchers and what things make sense in terms of integrating Gitcoin Passport with government ID, very technically advanced to have questions. I’m definitely impressed with how things are going,” said the programmer. 

According to Buterin, almost every major project in the Ethereum ecosystem has people from Ukraine. For example, the Ethereum Foundation itself has at least two Ukrainians, he pointed out.

“Definitely, Ukrainians are continuing to make a big impact everywhere in the space ,” Buterin said.

The Ethereum co-founder also talked about meme coins and answered the question whether this asset class has positive aspects. 

He emphasized that he has nothing against the “fun” that such tokens offer. On the other hand, according to Buterin, meme coins should be more sustainable and focus on the long life of the project.

“I do not oppose memes. I do not oppose people having fun. If I did, I would not have Dogecoin. DOGE is the OG of all meme coins, and I still have it,” the programmer admitted.

Speaking about the future of this asset class, Buterin said that if it wants to survive in the coming years, it needs to offer something new to the community. Projects should move away from speculation and pay attention to the long-term perspective, believes the co-founder of Ethereum. 

Recall that on June 22, Vitalik Buterin came to Ukraine and participated in the ETHKyiv hackathon, which was held as part of UBW’24, organized by the Incrypted team.