Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin boycotts CoinDesk’s Consensus 2018 conference

Monday, April 30, 2018 5:58 AM UTC

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has announced the boycott of CoinDesk’s Consensus conference this year and urging others to do the same.

In a series of tweets, Buterin outlined the reasons for the boycott. This includes the news outlet being “complicit in giveaway scams”, a “highly sensationalist article” on Ethereum split, and high conference fee, among others.

I am boycotting @coindesk's Consensus 2018 conference this year, and strongly encourage others to do the same. Here is my reasoning why.

1. Coindesk is recklessly complicit in enabling giveaway scams. See their latest article on OMG, which *directly links* to a giveaway scam. pic.twitter.com/WDr9uZ8XOw
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018

2. Their coverage of EIP 999 was terrible. They published a highly sensationalist article claiming the chain would split, when it was very clear that EIP 999 was *very far* from acceptance.

This is why pundits need to be replaced by prediction markets, ASAP. pic.twitter.com/6A7OWlx0nR
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018

3. Their reporting policies are designed to trap you with gotchas. Did you know that if you send them a reply, and you explicitly say that some part is off the record, that's explicitly on the record unless you go through a request/approve dance first? pic.twitter.com/8in6ZYSPbR
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018

4. And by the way, the conference costs $2-3k to attend. I refuse to personally contribute to that level of rent seeking.
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018

CoinDesk has rectified the article on OmiseGo last week itself. However, OmiseGo has announced that it is joining Buterin and is not going to attend Consensus 2018.

We have decided to join @vitalikbuterin in not attending #Consensus2018. We can’t in good conscience support a publication that puts its readers at risk through careless reporting and reacts with hostility rather than humility when the error is brought to its attention. https://t.co/mXjCj0g5IW
— OmiseGO (@omise_go) April 26, 2018

Coindesk’s behavior today is bigger than one error. It is vital that publications conduct the proper due diligence when reporting on token-based projects. Failure to do so is not only misleading but directly harmful to readers, users and the integrity of the technology.
— OmiseGO (@omise_go) April 26, 2018

Forklog reported that at the time of publication of the CoinDesk’s article on EIP 999, it was already established that the Ethereum community voted against the proposal.

When @peter_szilagyi complained that even though the author asked for his comments, his feedback was totally not incorporated into the article, the author's reply was that the article was already published by the time they received the reply.https://t.co/SC1sJs4tfn
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) April 26, 2018

The article in question has been edited since then to include comments from developer Peter Szilagyi and others.
CoinDesk editor Pete Rizzo responded on the matter, calling Buterin’s accusations as “absolutely ridiculous.”

I'm sorry, @VitalikButerin this is an absolutely ridiculous claim.

Other than this one issue, which we're working quickly to resolve, how is the editorial team "recklessly complicit" in enabling giveaway scams? What is one other instance where this has happened? https://t.co/hpDiwybpBm
— Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) April 26, 2018

Curious to see how #crypto will respond to @VitalikButerin's bullying and token tech solutionism@coindesk is a work in progress, and you'll never hear me defend it as perfect.

But I have not bitten my tongue this long to take this kind of bullshit from anyone #SorryNotSorry
— Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) April 26, 2018