Vitalik Buterin on the crypto blues: Focus on the tech, not the price

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared some sage advice for traders feeling the blues of the crypto bear market: Focus on the tech rather than the price.

The Ethereum co-founder made the recommendation in response to a Dec. 3 post from self-described crypto investor CoinMamba, echoing what many crypto investors are likely feeling at the moment.

After 9 years in crypto I’m kinda exhausted. I want to move on and do something different with my life. Tired of all these scammers and fraudsters..

"After 9 years in crypto I’m kinda exhausted. I want to move on and do something different with my life. Tired of all these scammers and fraudsters," CoinMamba said.

The crypto industry has continued to be bombarded with unsavoury news since the collapse of FTX and the resulting contagion, which recently claimed crypto exchange BlockFi.

BNB Chain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr recently confirmed it was hit by a multi-million dollar exploit on Dec. 1.

Even before that, hackers had already been responsible for the theft of over $2.98 billion in digital assets in 2022, according to statistics from blockchain security firm PeckShield.

A large chunk was from the Ronin bridge exploit, which resulted in $625 million in crypto assets being pilfered back in March. 

However, as a means to combat all the negativity, Buterin suggests moving away from trading / investing “circles” and instead, getting closer to the “tech and application ecosystem.”

"I'd recommend increasing your distance from trading/investing circles, and getting closer to the tech and application ecosystem," he said.

“Learn about ZK-SNARKs, visit a meetup in Latin America, listen to All Core Devs calls and read the notes until you've memorized all the EIP numbers…” he added.

Ether bull and host of The Daily Gwei Anthony Sassano agreed, saying the bear market is the "perfect time" to shift away from market watching and learn more about the tech.

"Much more signal than noise (especially in the Ethereum ecosystem) and the tech side is so much more exciting than the markets anyway."

Ethereum has given investors plenty to focus on this year, with the completion of the long-awaited Merge on Sept. 15, which saw the network shift away from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.

Buterin later added a new category of milestones to the Ethereum technical roadmap, one that aims to improve censorship resistance and decentralization of the Ethereum network.

"Being in it for the tech is already a significant and positive culture pivot, relative to being in it for price movements," said Buterin in his recent Twitter post.

Related: Vitalik Buterin offers lessons for crypto in wake of the FTX collapse

In November, Buterin told Bloomberg that the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange brought lessons for the entire crypto ecosystem.

He labeled the FTX collapse as a “huge tragedy” but also noted that the problem was in people, not technology — adding that the underlying stability of distributed ledger and the technology powering the crypto asset economy has not come into question.