I Used To Be Superman
When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I got a Superman costume for Halloween. I REALLY liked Superman at that age. In fact, I actually WAS Superman, lol. I didn't believe I was Superman. At that age, you don't believe things, you just know things. And I KNEW I was Superman. That's why I never took off the Superman costume for a lengthy period of time, even when I went to bed.
Hero worship is common when you're young. Superman was the first hero I remember worshipping, except for maybe my dad, who at the time I suspected was also secretly Superman (I know, I was Superman too, don't ask me how that works). But I worshipped a few other heroes as I grew up: Terry Bradshaw, 4 time Superbowl champion quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Stephen K. Hayes, the "western world's foremost authority on ninjutsu"; Run DMC & The Beastie Boys; Michael Jordan; Rocky Balboa / John Rambo; Neo in The Matrix... etc.
But Then You Become An Adult (Supposedly)
But at some point on the way to adulthood (whenever that happens!), for most of us the hero worship turns into simple admiration and respect, without needing to regard the person as an infallible god-like being. Our opinions of people become more nuanced, and the mistakes they make become unsurprising, as we see them as just fellow humans capable of the same mistakes we are.
So seeing fan art such as this tribute to Vitalik Buterin amuses me. It's pretty cool, I'll give it that. But the artist may or may not be placing him up on a pedestal in their mind. I'd have to be psychic to know that. But it certainly seems they might be.
I mean, this animation is all about Vitalik and Ethereum, a supposed virtual trip through his mind. And it seems nobody else exists there, nor any other blockchain. Just Vitalik and Ethereum. It very much reminds me of one of the most disturbing scenes in any movie I've ever seen, when John Malkovich crawls through the door into his own mind in Being John Malkovich, and everyone he sees is a copy of himself. If I were Vitalik I'd probably get pretty creeped out watching this, though I don't think that was the intention of the artist.
It obviously took some effort to place Vitalik at the center of the cryptosphere. And while he absolutely has a place amongst the creators of this paradigm shift, he is not the lone hero making it happen. Nor is he infallible, having kind of painted himself into a corner with all of the problems such a complex system as Ethereum has run into, such as the ever increasing transaction fees that prevent many people from using the system.
So Many Everyday Heroes All Around Us
No, he's not even close to being the lone hero. There are thousands of others. But most of them are nameless and faceless, unknowns working behind the scenes to bring our world into a new, improved (hopefully!) reality. Some are completely anonymous, even the most famous (I'm looking at you, Satoshi!). And some aren't even programmers. Some of them are content creators right here on Hive, using the technology these people are creating for its intended purpose, or even for purposes nobody ever thought of before, and helping to make it more robust and useful in the process.
And many of these heroes not only create content, they were instrumental in saving the platform when Hive forked from Steem during the takeover by Justin Sun. Obviously, the devs and witnesses were very important to this process, but without the thousands of ordinary users taking a stand and switching over, Hive would not be where it is today.