- Saylor faced backlash from the community following his latest comments regarding BTC’s custody.
- Buterin criticized him for pushing for a ‘regulatory capture approach’ in crypto.
Vitalik Buterine, Ethereum [ETH] co-founder, is the latest to criticize Michael Saylor’s perceived undermining comments Bitcoin [BTC] self-control.
During a recent interview, Saylor was asked whether leaving the custody of BTC to major banks and third-party entities posed a centralization risk and potential for government seizure.
He replied,
“If Bitcoin is in the hands of a bunch of paranoid crypto-anarchists, who are not regulated entities and do not recognize government, tax or reporting requirements, that increases the risk of seizure.”
Buterin punches Saylor
His comments received widespread criticism from the community, with Buterin being the latest to express his disagreement. Buterine refuted,
“I can happily say that I find Saylor’s comments insane. He seems to explicitly advocate a regulatory approach to protect crypto.”
He added that the regulations championed by Saylor are not in line with what crypto stands for.
Jameson Lopp, co-founder of BTC self-custody platform Casa HODL, echoed a similar sentiment.
He strengthened that self-custody is not just for “paranoid crypto investors,” but that championing third-party custody would be a net negative in the long run.
“Self-custody is not just important for individual Bitcoin holders. It is important for the further strengthening and improvement of the entire network.”
For perspective, self-custody gives users full control over their wallet keys. On the contrary, third-party custody dilutes users’ control over their digital assets.
The risky nature of the latter is best captured by a popular quote: “Not your keys, not your coins.”
For his part, Samson Mow of JAN3com, a consultant for nation-state adoption of BTC, reinforced the risk associated with third-party custody, whether one is paranoid or not.
“Just because you’re a paranoid crypto-anarchist doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
Large companies prefer external custodians
Well, the extensive criticism was no surprise, given Saylor’s image as BTC’s top publicist and maximalist.
However, this is his position on BTC custody, especially for large companies entering the crypto markets.
In a 2022 interview with Blockware, he advocated third-party custody for large companies, citing their robust checks and balances.
He called it a ‘blessing and curse‘for possession,
“That is the blessing (self-guardianship). The curse is when you want New York City, Chicago, San Fransisco, the US and 10,000 publicly traded institutions to buy and embrace Bitcoin. Then you have to deal with the control structures of those companies.”
That said, each side of the debate had solid arguments. But it remains to be seen how the potential risks of BTC’s network centralization will be mitigated as more major companies join the party.