Why Ethereum Co-Founder Sees More Potential In NFT Than Just A 'Casino' For Wealthy Celebs

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin sees non-fungible tokens as having greater potential than simply becoming “a casino” for already-wealthy celebrities. 

What Happened: Buterin wrote a blog post on Tuesday which devoted a section to NFTs and their role in supporting public good beyond ETH.

“NFTs stand a great chance of significantly helping many kinds of public goods, especially of the creative variety, at least partially solve their chronic and systemic funding deficiencies,” wrote Buterin.

Conversely, according to Buterin, NFTs could also be a “missed opportunity.” He made his case by using the example of Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk who put up a tweet for sale, but later changed his mind.

“If NFTs simply become a casino that largely benefits already-wealthy celebrities, that would be a far less interesting outcome,” as per Buterin.

Why It Matters: In order to expand the public good of NFTs, Buterin proposed two ideas. One being an institutional blessing for NFTs in exchange for a portion of the generated proceeds going towards a charitable cause.

The other idea Buterin came up with is engagement with social media platforms to make NFTs more visible on profiles of the people.

Vitalik described the sale of Twitter Inc TWTR and Square Inc SQ CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, the proceeds of which would go towards a charitable cause, as “a very admirable first step.”

That sale was denominated in ETH. The cryptocurrency traded 6.31% lower at $1,576.07 at press time. 

Buterin isn’t alone in promoting NFTs. On Wednesday, it was reported Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has built an online art gallery for the purpose.