After the bloodbath in the cryptocurrency market this week, community user @Shillverstein expressed his despair and hopelessness in a tweet today. In response, many community users left messages of encouragement and support, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who shared his own negative experiences and encouraged him to keep fighting. However, independent researcher Chen Jian criticized these encouraging comments, stating, “Vitalik is a typical victim mentality.”
The cryptocurrency market experienced a severe bloodbath earlier this week, resulting in significant losses for many cryptocurrency spot and contract investors. Many farewell messages have appeared in the community, and platform X user @Shillverstein is one of them.
@Shillverstein expressed his despair and hopelessness in a tweet, stating:
“I have made the decision to end all this pain.
I love you all and thank you for your support over the years. I’m sorry, I’ve always been a depressed waste.
I’m on the verge of collapse. I made a major decision to move closer to my family, but everything didn’t go as planned. I have nowhere to go, completely lost, and filled with despair. I even have to give up my dog.
I am completely broken and have no energy left to keep fighting.”
I’m losing my mind. I made a big move to be closer to family and it’s not working out. I have no where to go, I’m completely lost and hopeless. I have to give up my dog. I’m just incredibly broken and have no energy left to keep fighting
— Tea čozy (@Shillverstein)February 6, 2025
Vitalik: Hearing the negative news in the crypto market made me want to give up
In response, many community users left messages of encouragement and support in the comments of his tweet. Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his own negative experiences (such as Ethereum Foundation and elitism in the crypto community) as an example and advised him not to underestimate himself and to continue fighting:
“Fighting consumes energy and brings people to the breaking point. This is part of the condition of life.
Do I feel good when I hear people from crypto twitter and VC firms telling me that PvP KOL degen casino that’s money-losing for >99% of its own users is the best product…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin)February 6, 2025”
Independent researcher: Vitalik is a typical victim mentality
However, after reading Vitalik’s “positive encouragement,” independent researcher Chen Jian criticized Vitalik’s rhetoric as a typical victim mentality and pick-up artist (PUA) rhetoric:
“At first, after reading Vitalik’s tweet, I even felt some sympathy and resonance and even reflected on whether my own perspective was too narrow, feeling a little ashamed. But immediately after, I woke up and told myself: No, this is wrong! Don’t be deceived by him! Because all I see in Vitalik are closed-mindedness, arrogance, self-importance, and stubbornness.
Vitalik’s words are a typical victim mentality + PUA rhetoric!
Chen Jian further stated that the community’s criticism of the Ethereum Foundation from beginning to end is not baseless, and Vitalik and his team had ample time to explain the reasons behind these accusations to the community or consider whether these criticisms are valid and make some changes to “compromise” with the community.
But there was nothing. From start to finish, there was no positive response to the community’s accusations. Indeed, among these criticisms, there are some extreme and malicious remarks, but they also contain a large amount of rational and friendly suggestions. However, Vitalik never responded or adopted them.
He seems to deliberately ignore those reasonable suggestions and only sees a bunch of insults and extreme expressions. In Vitalik’s eyes, the community becomes “a group of shortsighted people who just want to turn the crypto community into a PvP casino and have their minds clouded by interests!”
In addition, Chen Jian added that some community users would sarcastically say that those who provide suggestions to the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik are just a bunch of people who have never managed a team. But Chen Jian refuted this by saying that these people are either stupid or bad:
Stupid because – Can’t they see that the founders of the top-level Ethereum ecosystem, such as AAVE and Lido, are also offering suggestions? And these suggestions have garnered a lot of resonance and support from us “shortsighted people”?
Bad because – Don’t retail investors have the right to make suggestions, complain, and vent their dissatisfaction? Even ordinary people have a mayor’s hotline, so how can we, in this supposedly flat and decentralized crypto community, not even have the right to make suggestions?
Has Vitalik really reflected on the problems with himself and the Foundation? From his various performances, it seems not.
Does the Ethereum Foundation really take on the responsibility of uniting the community and leading the development of the ecosystem? Currently, it doesn’t seem so.
I initially felt sympathy and empathy after reading Vitalik’s tweet and even reflected on whether I was too narrow-minded, feeling a little ashamed. But immediately after, I woke up and told myself, no, this is wrong! Don’t be deceived by him! Because all I see is a closed-minded, arrogant, self-important, and stubborn Vitalik…