Vitalik Buterin blasts centralised crypto exchanges

“We can really take away this stupid king-making power that centralised crypto exchanges have, where they have this ability to just decide which tokens become big by deciding to list them and charging these crazy $10-15-million listing fees,” he says.

Buterin, who was speaking at “TechCrunch Sessions: Blockchain”, considers peer-to-peer exchanges to be more faithful to the blockchain philosophy than centralised cryptocurrency exchanges.

However, he made the case for centralised exchanges. “In practice, first of all on the fiat to crypto side it’s very difficult to decentralise because you are interfacing with the fiat world, and the fiat world is one that only has centralised gateways, so I do think that there are valuable services that are being provided there that are very hard to decentralise.”

Cybersecurity expert John McAfee agreed with Buterin in a tweet: “The crypto exchanges have become the thing that we have originally fought against. Their power is immense. Hitbtc, for example, has increased suffering for millions of poor people who cannot afford the minimum buy-in since it is greater than their monthly income. Boycott them.”