Vitalik Buterin Says X’s Community Notes Are an Example of ‘Crypto-Value’
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin analyzed the Community Notes feature of X, formerly Twitter. He compared the tool to an exemplary “crypto asset” on social media.
Buterin explained in a post he published on his website in August that X’s Community Notes tool, formerly called Twitter, is based entirely on an open-source algorithm. He said the platform’s tool comes “closest to the value of crypto that we’ve seen in mainstream society.” Buterin said the algorithm used to create the feature isn’t perfect. It’s impressively useful and surprisingly close to the ideal of neutrality. This feature provides additional context to photos used as story previews and misinformation about COVID-19. Buterin said: “I would say the ‘theoretical’ aesthetic side of crypto [referencing this tweet] was necessary to distinguish between protocols that are actually untrustworthy and crazy constructions that looked good but basically the trust of a handful of centralized ones Actors required or, worse, ended up being frauds.” “He continued:
“It comes closest to the large-scale applications that we will see in the next two years. And we can already see that it offers a lot of value.”
Buterin even hinted that Musk may have ordered the removal of certain community notes that were contrary to his business interests. Despite the Ethereum co-founder’s allusion and criticism of “highly controversial actions” on Twitter following Musk’s takeover, the X CEO called the post a ”great analysis.”
Great analysis of @CommunityNotes by @VitalikButerin https://t.co/DXiGAWqSvn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2023
Musk, who described himself as a “free speech absolutist”. According to a Washington Post report, prior to his October 2022 takeover of Twitter, he may have been behind adding a five-second delay for links to news organizations like the New York Times and Facebook. Buterin’s post came at a time when Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg were having a heated online debate about their plans to fight in mixed martial arts in the future.
