Ethereum co-founder Buterin leads crypto pushback against X location display feature

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly warned that X’s newly introduced location-tagging feature poses serious privacy and security risks, especially for the cryptocurrency community. 

His concerns reflect a broader and growing pushback among the crypto community, many of whom believe it represents another step toward eroding online privacy. For users who consider anonymity a vital principle for digital freedom, the new label feels like an unnecessary and intrusive overreach.

And the rollout has already sparked a strong backlash. Some users are not only frustrated or upset that X has disappointed them as a space where they can speak without being spied upon, but they are also concerned that the update will introduce new modes of harassment. 

Some worry that the feature will pose risks to more vulnerable users, like activists, journalists, or people living under repressive governments, who may face backlash or targeted abuse after sharing their addresses.

Others say it’s an unfair game-ender: It exposes real locations for honest users, while the most sophisticated bad actors will easily hide behind false ones.

Despite the backlash, the platform maintains that it aims to help users fact-check information and understand the context of posts. As X explains, knowing the source of a message can be particularly powerful in heated global conversations about politics, war, technology, or public policy. 

Buterin says X’s location tags offer short-term context

Buterin is quick to point out that such transparency can be beneficial in the short term. When users understand the context of a comment, “people might be more likely to gain some openness to alternative perspectives,” which could foster more thoughtful exchanges, he says. That could help burst online filter bubbles and reconnect digital debates to lived experiences.

But Buterin also cautioned that these gains might come too late. X did nothing meaningful to counter disinformation, state-sponsored influence campaigns, and organized propaganda networks. People, he noted, would likely figure out their own workarounds to circumvent the location feature if no protections were in place.

According to him, abusers from various countries will be able to pretend they are in another country, hide their actions, or impersonate locals living in politically sensitive areas. That is the reason, he said, that the system remains “vulnerable,” no matter how transparent it may appear initially.

Buterin cautioned that any benefits would quickly crumble. Determined actors can readily tunnel out their location, including political propagandists, targeted disinformation networks, and advanced social engineering organizations.

He says it’s likely that bad actors will rent or purchase access to phone numbers, IP addresses, and even identity materials, indicating they are coming from within another country. That would enable them to set up low-credibility sock-puppet accounts with phony backgrounds. It would be challenging to create millions of such profiles, but building a few influential ones would be relatively straightforward.

This makes the feature risky, according to Buterin, particularly as some users in vulnerable job roles, authoritarian environments, or political movements could come under threat if their real location is revealed without their permission. Additionally, he emphasizes that expecting users to show their country without a clear opt-out is a serious privacy concern.

Such fears have found an echo among cryptocurrency developers, privacy advocates, and Web3 researchers. Critics have slammed the change, saying that location-revealing features should always be optional and never automatic.

Buterin pushes for safe, spoof-resistant identity systems

In the future, Buterin says we need better systems that help people understand global perspectives without exposing them to harm. He says identity attributes should not be based on simple claims, such as nationality, degree, or document, because these can be forged.

Instead, he imagines identity tools that blend a mix of signals about a user’s activity, history, and trusted communications to create credibility in more hardened and tamper-proof ways.

The skirmish is an indication of a widening rift between major social platforms, which are calling for greater transparency, and the crypto world, which is increasingly averse to steps that erode personal data.

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