Why Does Buterin Care About The Price Of Ethereum?

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum has recently spoken to crypto-journalist Laura Shin during a live recording of Unchained Podcast, a popular podcast series that explores all areas of the blockchain world. During the talk, Buterin discusses a number of different ideas within Ethereum and answers one of the Ethereum communities burning questions, does Buterin care about the price of Ethereum?

He’s a very wealthy man so therefore probably doesn’t worry too much when Ethereum starts to drop, though we do think Buterin should be ‘worried’ about the price of Ethereum as frankly, the price does help with popularity, doesn’t it?

When asked if he believes the price of Ethereum is important, according to Crypto Globe, Buterin states:

"I'm going to be really candid because that's the right thing... Some of the earlier rhetoric, especially veering on the more extreme side of the price not mattering at all, in part was counter signaling to distinguish ourselves from other crypto projects that just do pumping and lambo-ing way too much, but another thing is that it was about minimizing legal risk by basically trying to make the project seem more distant from something that will be covered by financial regulation... If people try to claim the price doesn't matter at all, financial regulators are totally going to see through that… I can tell you... why the price being higher than lower... is good.”

A little bit cryptic, however Buterin has to remain on the fence otherwise he’s only going to be accused of manipulating Ethereum investors. So, why does Buterin believe a high price is better than a low price?

“Security. So if the price is zero, the network can't be secure, and that's true in Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake. Another reason is, obviously, that there's a lot of projects who in the ecosystem hold cryptocurrency... and if the price is higher, then they'll have more money to do the things they want to do… Especially, the security concern is a totally legitimate technical argument.”

Buterin makes some very interesting points here. Of course, he likes it when the price is higher because it makes him richer, but it also make the rest of the crypto community richer which means that they are then more inclined to spend money on other projects and are more inclined to invest. More investment means more growth and a bigger industry, it’s simple really.

Another great point however is security. When Ethereum and cryptocurrency costs more, it also costs more to implement attacks. A higher price locks down the network and does make it a more solid investment, keeping the blockchain safe and thus, keeping investors safe too. So, why does Buterin care about the price of Ethereum? Frankly, he cares because a high price keeps his community safe and it keeps them content, helping the industry grow and helping to make ultimate crypto adoption a more realistic prospect.