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CoinDesk selects "The Most Influential 52 People of the Year"! Vitalik Buterin: Criticizes those who overestimate themselves, throws shade at Justin Sun

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CoinDesk selects "The Most Influential 52 People of the Year"! Vitalik Buterin: Criticizes those who overestimate themselves, throws shade at Justin Sun

Foreign media CoinDesk has released its latest issue titled "Most Influential 2022," which selected 52 representatives from the cryptocurrency industry in 2022 and wrote feature articles for each of the selected individuals. However, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin expressed dissatisfaction with this list of selected individuals, even taking the opportunity to indirectly criticize Tron founder Justin Sun.

CoinDesk Most Influential 2022

The CoinDesk annual list features a diverse group of individuals, including many influential figures, some of whom may have questionable reputations but still hold significant influence. Here is a partial list of the selected individuals:

  1. Binance founder CZ
  2. FTX founder SBF
  3. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and numerous Ethereum developers
  4. Tornado Cash developer in custody Alexey Pertsev
  5. Doomsday Riders CEOs Do Kwon, Su Zhu, Alex Mashinsky, and Stephen Ehrlich of Terraform Labs, Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and Voyager
  6. Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov
  7. Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon
  8. Yuga Labs co-founders Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, and CEO Nicole Muniz
  9. Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu
  10. A16z partner Chris Dixon
  11. Crypto sleuth ZachXBT
  12. Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt
  13. BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes
  14. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell
  15. SEC and CFTC Chairs Gary Gensler and Rostin Behnam
  16. Anonymous NFT collector Punk6529
  17. Former COO of ENS Brantly Millegan

The list includes a total of 52 groups, and those interested can view the Most Influential 2022 page for more details.

Vitalik Speaks Out

Following the list's release, CoinDesk took to Twitter to ask the community for feedback on the list and if any important figures were overlooked. Ethereum founder Vitalik responded, stating:

"I think the biggest problem with this list is that it overrates those who have far more reputation than contributions and love to show off, and underrates those who are building tech and the most meaningful applications."

As a result, Vitalik supplemented his comments with mentions of many technical developers, including the ZK-EVM development team and Optimistic scaling technology team.

Furthermore, Vitalik discussed the situation of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev, noting that while Alexey's situation is worth attention, he does not believe he should be on the list due to the public controversy he is involved in. Similarly, while ENS is crucial in the Ethereum ecosystem, he does not think ENS should be included due to the controversial statements made by former COO Brantly Millegan.

"Talking about these things is important because what we choose to emphasize determines how the public perceives crypto. Do they want to see a subculture of controversy, extravagance, and self-centeredness, or do they want to see an industry actively engaged in cutting-edge science and developing important applications?" Vitalik stated.

Vitalik Mocks Justin Sun

Setting aside the previous topic, due to an upcoming sponsored interview by Tron on CoinDesk tomorrow discussing "Responsibility and Best Practices," Vitalik questioned CoinDesk's decision to host this event.

Vitalik believes that following the SBF incident, people should learn to be more cautious and not aid wealthy individuals in buying legitimacy through spending money.

In response to Vitalik's query, Justin Sun mimicked SBF's post-incident Twitter post with a "What," followed by a photo of Vitalik and himself, indicating: