Vitalik Buterin Top Nobel Prize Contender? Economists Hail His Transformative Impact on Crypto

• The winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics will be revealed on Oct. 14, 2024.
• Vitalik Buterin’s contributions to the philosophy of economics via his writing and philanthropic efforts, were heavily praised.
• Buterin has recently sparked controversy for his use of crypto privacy platforms and opinions on Polymarket conflict betting options.

Leading economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok recently suggested that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin could be in line for the upcoming Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions to cryptocurrency.

Despite Buterin’s philanthropy and contributions to the theory of cryptocurrency, some of his recent actions have placed him on the wrong side of the law.

Vitalik Buterin Praised

During the most recent episode of the “Marginal Revolution” podcast, Cowen and Tabarrok discussed who might receive the prestigious award this year. Cowen said he had “an unusual pick.”

According to Cowen, he’s betting on “Buterin, who actually did something in monetary economics.” He adds:

“It’s amazing to me how none of the economists that I can think of at all have made any contributions to the theory of crypto.”

Cowen notes that while there is an increasing interest in cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology as it is now a “bigger share of the economy”, the groundwork was really done by computer scientists.

Highlighting Buterin’s contributions to building and creating the platform and currency, Cowen believes deserves the award. Furthering this, Tabarrok agreed, saying:

“Not only that, but Vitalik has continued to contribute toward the mechanism design of Ethereum by going to proof-of-stake.”

Humorously, he compared the brilliance of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) upgrade to “videos of guys in Saudi Arabia where they change the car tires whilst the car is moving. I mean, that’s what Ethereum did.”

Notably, as the two mention, Ethereum’s market cap is huge, ranking it the second-highest-ranked crypto with a market cap of $287 billion.

Beyond Ethereum

Looking at his work outside of being a tech wizard, the pair discussed Buterin’s contributions to the philosophy of economics , particularly in the realms of privacy and decentralization.

“He writes on monetary economics and there’s no economist who has anything better to say on the topics he writes on. That to me is worth a lot in this consideration.”

The duo also acknowledged his philanthropic streak , which has seen Buterin donate millions to numerous charities. Most recently, Buterin decided to convert another big chunk of his memecoin portfolio into ETH for charitable donations to fund anti-airborne disease tech.

This came just two days after Buterin donated 100 ETH to the legal defense of a crypto mixer called Tornado Cash .

Controversial Takes

Despite his philanthropic actions, Buterin found himself in hot water earlier this year for leveraging the U.S.-sanctioned crypto privacy platform, Railgun.

Railgun has a history of being leveraged by bad actors with 2023 reports found that North Korean hackers, “Lazarus Group” had funneled millions through the platform. In his response, Buterin said, “Privacy is normal.”

Other legal troubles facing the Ethereum figurehead include his defense of war betting on Polymarket. This came after crypto event-betting platform Polymarket put a “Hezbollah” category on the platform following deepening woes in the Middle East.

A debate followed, in which Buterin argued that it’s more akin to a “news” site for audiences. Though he isn’t opposed to conflict/war betting options, he is against “assassination contracts.”