Vitalik Buterin spoke at the TOKEN2049 conference

• Ethereum co-founder spoke at the TOKEN2049 conference.
• Vitalik Buterin spoke about the availability of cryptocurrencies.
• He also explained why cryptoassets are still not widespread as a means of payment.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin spoke at the TOKEN2049 conference, which takes place between September 18 and 19, 2024 in Singapore.

During his speech, he touched upon such topics as the availability of cryptocurrencies, their use as a means of payment, security in the ecosystem as a whole and others. This is reported by Incrypted editorial representatives who attended the event.

Buterin noted that at the present time about cryptocurrencies can not be said that ‘it’s too early’. According to him, this phrase means that we are at a stage when cryptoassets are not yet suitable for widespread use.

Vitalik gave the example that in 2013 ‘everyone’ was surprised by Bitcoin technology and at that time it was accepted ‘in two and a half bars’ in the United States. Already in 2021, the asset was in Argentina and because of the high inflation rate, a cup of coffee could be bought with Ethereum.

‘We use cryptocurrencies, but not decentralized technology. And that’s one of the reasons why cryptoassets have failed as a means of payment. Other reasons are high fees, poor user experience and others,’ Buterin said.

The Ethereum co-founder also spoke about the reduction of commissions to almost zero in L2 networks and the growth of rollup security.

In addition, he noted that transaction times on L2 networks have dropped to around a second, while Ethereum’s have dropped to around ten seconds. Buterin emphasized the progress in account abstraction technology, as well as the “big revolution in user experience.”

The expert added that limited technology used to be a limiting factor, but this is not the case now. According to him, there are still reasons not to use cryptoassets.

‘Cryptocurrencies are inefficient — so they say. But it’s not because of the limitations of the technology. Blockchain is empowering the internet, already. Blockchain is digital concrete,’ the programmer noted.

Vitalik Buterin also noted the need to improve the security of wallets, especially to protect them from centralized players. He predicted that in the future the Ethereum ecosystem will move towards social networks, as an example — Farcaster, payment systems, private pools, zero-knowledge and Proof of Humanity technologies.

‘The system should be decentralized and practical at the same time,’ Buterin concluded.

Note that the Incrypted team became the official media partner of the TOKEN2049 conference. Arthur Hayes also spoke at the event. Read about what the former CEO of the exchange BitMEX in the material.