INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech at EthCC on Wednesday, asking blockchain developers to focus on freeing
humanity through their inventions rather than building more technically advanced tools.Buterin compared the individual liberty ethos of the
early internet in the 1990s to the current ethos in blockchain, noting that the free and open internet championed by early digital rights
the audience that many of the Web2 founders, who have since become known for censorship policies, framed themselves as freedom advocates in
Buterin cautioned Web3 founders not to fall into the same trap:"People who are working on cryptography really need to more actively think of
cryptography as something that has social and moral implications and something where you actually have to actively think about what the
Source: EthCCFreedom and individual liberty are hallmarks of the cypherpunk movement that underpinned crypto in its earliest days, but as
the industry matures and courts state officials, international corporations and banks, many fear that the early cypherpunk ethos is giving
of software developers who believe in protecting privacy and individual liberty through end-to-end encryption, began in the 1980s.Early
cypherpunks were instrumental in popularizing digital encryption at a time when the US National Security Agency (NSA) wanted to introduce
restrictions on the use and export of encryption technologies in the 1990s.During the early days of crypto, from 2009 until around 2021,
Cypherpunk ideals like privacy, censorship resistance, parallel systems building and libertarian political theory were synonymous with the
industry.However, the growth of the crypto sector and the rapid price appreciation of digital assets at its foundation continue to attract
advocates, have become a bifurcating line that has split the crypto community into those focused on growth and those who want to preserve
