A self-styled sleuth who goes by Mr. Huber, published a series of documents on Twitter earlier today, claiming that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin had made some questionable deals with regulators in the United States. The documents in question involve a research paper that Buterin penned back in 2020 in collaboration with one Thibault Schrepel.
"All genuinely decentralized blockchain infrastructures – such as we have defined them [Ethereum] – should benefit from various legal protections, whether in law enforcement or regulation"
— Mr. Huber🔥🦅🔥 (@Leerzeit) May 22, 2023
Vitalik Buterin & Thibault Schrepel in "Blockchain Code as Antitrust", 05/2020 https://t.co/mP8pP6Z5XW pic.twitter.com/zOA535lcQt
Mr. Huber is a crypto influencer, having considerable popularity among the crypto community on Twitter. He often takes to the social media platform to share the findings of his investigations into crypto entities. He previously reported on certain secret deals involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Huber took to Twitter earlier today to share a Forbes article that was published in September 2020. The article revealed that Makan Delrahim, who was serving as the Assistant Attorney General and the Chief of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division at the time, was working with attorneys and economists to explore blockchain solutions for antitrust purposes.
Delrahim cited Buterin’s research paper while making the case for blockchain’s role in antitrust laws. The paper, titled “Blockchain Code as Antitrust”, showed how blockchain could help in reaching the goals of antitrust law in situations where the rule of law does not (fully) apply. The paper also revealed the legal and technical barriers that would have to be overcome to use blockchain in antitrust laws.
According to Mr. Huber, one of those technical barriers is creating a base-layer monopoly for a blockchain, since the research paper’s vision for blockchain solutions for antitrust wouldn’t come to fruition without said monopoly. Huber alleged that Buterin has been working with regulators and government officials to ensure that Ethereum is the blockchain that becomes the monopoly in question.
Mr. Huber’s latest allegations caught the attention of David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer at Ripple. Huber’s followers highlighted the rumors about Buterin and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin allegedly meeting with the SEC one month prior to the lawsuit against Ripple, which catapulted ETH to the second spot in terms of market capitalization.
