Shiba Inu coin: Ethereum co-founder ‘burns’ billions of dollars in viral dog themed cryptocurrency
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Your support makes all the difference.One of the creators of ethereum has “burnt” billions of dollars in shiba inu-themed cryptocurrency, saying that he did not want to hold onto the viral currency.
Vitalik Buterin – who is the youngest crypto billionaire in the world – moved the coins into a dead wallet address, effectively destroying some 41 per cent of the currency that was in circulation. He held on to a small number of the coins and intends to give them to charity, as he recently did by donating to the Indian covid response.
In recent days, the shiba inu-themed coins known as SHIB have surged in value, in part because of their link to the more famous canine cryptocurrency, dogecoin.
Mr Buterin had been sent a vast number of the coins early in the cryptocurrency’s development, apparently as part of a plan to market it. His cryptocurrency wallet is publicly known, meaning that he regularly receives gifts from wellwishers or others looking to bring attention to their cryptocurrencies.
Because of the public nature of his public wallet, he noted that he was likely to send the coins somewhere else eventually anyway. But he said that destroying the coins would speed that up.
He also asked people not to send him coins in future projects. He said that he did not want the power that such large holdings could bring, and requested that they were instead sent to charities.
He also praised the work of those who are invested in the “dog tokens”, thanking for their donations and generosity.
“I’ve decided to burn 90 per cent of the remaining shiba tokens in my wallet,” he wrote in a note that came alongside the transaction that “burnt” the coins. “The remaining 10 per cent will be sent to a (not yet decided) charity with similar values to cryptorelief (preventing large-scale loss of life) but with a more long-term orientation. Covid is a big problem now, but it’s important to think about the longer term future too!
“Simply holding the remaining coins in the 0xab58 wallet forever was never an option; for security reasons alone they would have to be moved to a better wallet eventually, and any transaction I make would get interpreted as an action. So… may as well just do the useful thing immediately.
“I’ve actually been impressed by how the dog token communities have treated the recent donations! Plenty of dog people have shown their generosity and their willingness to not just focus on their own profits but also be interested in making the world as a whole better. I support all who are earnestly doing that.
“But for anyone making coins (or daos, or whatever else) in the future, PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME COINS OR POWER IN YOUR PROJECT WITHOUT MY CONSENT! I don’t *want* to be a locus of power of that kind. Better to just print the coins into the hands of a worthy charity directly (though do talk to them first).”
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