Ethereum (ETH/USD) creator Vitalik Buterin has said he will boycott this year's CoinDesk conference and has urged others to follow the lead.
I am boycotting @coindesk's Consensus 2018 conference this year, and strongly encourage others to do the same. Here is my reasoning why.
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018
1. Coindesk is recklessly complicit in enabling giveaway scams. See their latest article on OMG, which *directly links* to a giveaway scam. pic.twitter.com/WDr9uZ8XOw
“CoinDesk is recklessly complicit in enabling giveaway scams. See their latest article on OMG, which ‘directly links’ to a giveaway scam,” Buterin said in a Twitter post.
The impetus for Buterin's tweet was a technical analysis blog post, which linked to a fraudulent website. The link has since been removed from the article.
A second reason, Buterin said, is their “terrible” coverage of EIP 999.
“They published a highly sensationalist article claiming the chain would split, when it was very clear that EIP 999 was ‘very far’ from acceptance,” his said in another tweet.
Third, he said, “their reporting policies are designed to trap you with gotchas.”
“Did you know that if you send them a reply, and you explicitly say that some part is off the record, that's explicitly on the record unless you go through a request/approve dance first?”
High costs are a fourth reason for the boycott.
“And by the way, the conference costs $2-3k to attend. I refuse to personally contribute to that level of rent seeking," Buterin said.
OmiseGo, an open payment platform and decentralized exchange issued on Ethereum, said in a Twitter post it will join Vitalik Buterin in not attending Consensus 2018.
“We can’t in good conscience support a publication that puts its readers at risk through careless reporting and reacts with hostility rather than humility when the error is brought to its attention,” the firm said.
We have decided to join @vitalikbuterin in not attending #Consensus2018. We can’t in good conscience support a publication that puts its readers at risk through careless reporting and reacts with hostility rather than humility when the error is brought to its attention. https://t.co/mXjCj0g5IW
— OmiseGO (@omise_go) April 26, 2018
Kevin Worth, chief executive of CoinDesk has said they are “disappointed by Vitalik’s tweet.”
By Siranush Ghazanchyan