For those of you who have been recently outraged by screenshots of Ethereum's creator Vitalik Buterin's twitter, please read the conversation. Child porn was brought up by a twitter user who was asking about a bitcoin cash developer who had made comments on the issue before, and Vitalik was responding to that. Does it look bad out of context? Yes, terribly. It is it a taboo conversation to have on twitter? Yes, absolutely. But it was a conversation that was based on two subjects that were introduced out of context, they were not brought up by Vitalik.
I have broken it down, and pasted it below with a link to the archived feed and pictures in case you cannot access it.
1- Vitalik did not bring up child porn, someone brought it up in a conversation about the creators of Bitcoin Cash. The twitter user said:
"Can you please explain how you think the team behind B-Cash is trustworthy? They’ve publicly posted about “destroying bitcoin & other altcoins,” one was on the most wanted list, one called for legalization of child porn (I’m a libertarian and don’t support it), and it goes on."
2- Using the examples provided by the Twitter user, Vitalik responds with this:
"They're not a monolithic entity. Roger is not at all single-coin maximalist, see:
…https://twitter.com/rogerkver/status/926566945008308225
- rogerkver
Plenty of bitcoiners advocate legalization of all drugs. I don't see legalizing possession of child porn as more radical than heroin."
3- The men continue to have a conversation, which I have pasted here:
Omeid @DaPerzer · 34m34 minutes ago
Replying to @VitalikButerin @_Kevin_Pham and 14 others
Dude, heroin is something you do that impacts yourself. Owning child porn impacts children and encourages continued exploitation of children. It’s great to be a libertarian, but this is one place where I draw the line.
Vitalik ButerinVerified account
@VitalikButerin · 27m27 minutes ago
I can easily argue that (i) doing heroin imposes risks on others, or (ii) simple possession of child porn does not.
Omeid @DaPerzer · 26m26 minutes ago
Good point, but can you name any benefits that would come with legalizing the possession of child porn?
Vitalik ButerinVerified account
@VitalikButerin · 20m20 minutes ago
Establishing a general norm that "a person's laptop is an extension of their mind, and is inviolate" can IMO have social benefits.
That's where I see Rick F coming from.
Omeid @DaPerzer · 19m19 minutes ago
I will have to think about that view more.
4- Now, this is where people started to read the word "child porn" and get (reasonably) upset. As more comments were directed at him about this, he deleted the tweets. When someone posted the screenshots, he responded with:
These tweets have been taken out of context and do, - of course-, look terrible, but they are not reflective of his personal beliefs on child pornography.
Here is the link the controversial archive ( https://archive.is/sTUZU ), and here is a picture of his response when confronted on his personal feed. Feel free to investigate yourself with the link here as well (
) .https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/930289371999232000
- VitalikButerin
I hope this helped add some clarity to those of you have been informed that VB is a child porn advocate. Feel free to comment your thoughts on the whole ordeal below, I'd love to read what you have to say.
-JFTBC Whitney