Vivaldi Boss Attacks 'Unethical' Cryptocurrencies
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Vivaldi has become the latest browser maker to take a stand against cryptocurrencies, arguing that "they are nothing more than a pyramid scheme masquerading as currency."
The barrage comes in a blog post from Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner, in which he clarifies the company's position on cryptocurrencies in no uncertain terms.
"Cryptocurrency has been touted by many as a revolution in currency, the future of investing, and an innovative technology," writes von Tetzchner in the vivaldi-blog. “But if you look past the hype, you will find nothing more than a pyramid scheme masquerading as currency.”
He criticizes the way cryptocurrencies are sold to budding investors. “Since cryptocurrencies are too volatile to be used as real currency, people treat them as some kind of investment scheme,” he writes.
“The problem is that in order to extract real money from the system, you have to find someone willing to buy the tokens you have. And this is only likely to happen as long as they believe they will be able to sell them to someone who will pay even more for them. And so on and so on."
“If at any point one stops being able to find people willing to buy those tokens only on the promise that they will be worth more in the future, the whole scheme could collapse, with the value of all tokens going to zero.”
environmental disaster
Von Tetzchner also attacks the environmental damage caused by crypto mining. "Bitcoin's energy use alone is staggering, consuming as much electricity as some countries," he writes. "And this is likely to continue to increase as the technology behind it does not and cannot reasonably scale."
"While many of us are doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint, it seems counterproductive to indulge in technology that undoes that hard work," he adds.
Although other browser makers like Opera, which von Tetzchner co-founded before his acrimonious parting ways with the company, offer support for crypto wallets, Vivaldi's boss says there's no chance Vivaldi will follow the same path.
“By creating our own cryptocurrency or supporting cryptocurrency-related features in the browser, we would be helping our users participate in what is at best a gamble and at worst a scam,” he writes. "It would be unethical, plain and simple."
Mozilla Block
Vivaldi's stance follows a similar decision by Firefox maker Mozilla earlier this month.
Mozilla drew criticism when it posted a tweet reminding its followers that they could donate in cryptocurrency, prompting the company to quickly suspend such donations.
“As of today, we are reviewing whether and how our current policy on crypto donations aligns with our climate goals,” said the company tweeted January 6th. “And while we conduct our review, we will be pausing the ability to donate cryptocurrency.”
