Vitalik Buterin Challenges Michael Saylor’s Dismissal of Bitcoin Centralization Risks

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has added his voice to the chorus of condemnation facing MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor following the latter’s comments advocating for institutional Bitcoin (BTC) custody.

Buterin’s critique came after Saylor suggested in a recent interview that large institutions holding Bitcoin can reduce the chances of asset seizure, which lawless crypto holders could more likely cause.

Saylor Advocates for Institutional Custody

In the October 21 sit down with Madison Reidy, the self-described Bitcoin maximalist discussed a wide range of issues, including the potential for broader asset adoption among companies and governments. He also advocated for the need for user-friendly BTC investment products, suggesting they are crucial for the cryptocurrency’s mainstream acceptance.

However, it was Saylor’s response to Reidy’s question regarding the potential risk of making Bitcoin more centralized by putting it in the hands of a few large institutions that drew the ire of the community.

She suggested that such a scenario could increase the risk of seizure and confiscation, as happened with gold in the 1930s. Saylor dismissed the concern, calling those who held it “paranoid crypto-anarchists.”

“People say that, but it’s mostly paranoid crypto-anarchists. It’s a myth and a trope that repeats itself. First of all, the government didn’t really seize gold back then; people voluntarily turned it in,” said MicroStrategy’s former CEO.

Saylor argued that regulated entities such as BlackRock and Fidelity, rather than individuals or small custodians, should be the primary holders of Bitcoin. He claimed this would protect the cryptocurrency from government seizure while ensuring its stability in the broader financial system.

Further, he declared that these same anarchists could actually originate a Bitcoin seizure event due to their disregard for the rule of law:

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“I think when Bitcoin is held by a bunch of crypto-anarchists who aren’t regulated entities, who don’t acknowledge government or don’t acknowledge taxes, or don’t acknowledge reporting requirements, that increase the risk of seizure.”

Buterin’s Stance on Self-Custody

But Vitalik Buterin disagreed. In an October 23 response to a post by crypto security expert Jameson Lopp, the Ethereum co-founder said Saylor’s argument effectively promotes centralization, which Bitcoin was designed to avoid.

In his opinion, trusting institutional players with the asset’s custody erodes the very foundation of decentralization on which cryptocurrencies are built.

Buterin also took aim at his earlier involvement in the “mountain man” stereotype surrounding BTC self-custody, calling the notion outdated. He stated that advancements such as zero-knowledge proof and account abstraction have evolved the security trade-offs for self-custody.

The developer maintains that Saylor’s vision of institutional custody is dangerous, suggesting that self-custody, while not without challenges, is important to Bitcoin’s long-term security and integrity.

Buterin’s Ethereum has also had its own issues with centralization. A report from 2023 showed that more than 60% of its nodes were run through centralized entities like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. It prompted the co-founder to suggest using stateless clients as a possible workaround for the issue, although he acknowledged it may take between 10 and 20 years to get there.