Earlier today I was reading the news and came across an article detailing a meeting between Putin and Vitalik about integration of blockchain technology within the Russian government.
After reading that I was quite taken a back, I have never been a fan of Russia and Putin and think that Putin is a psychopathic dictatorship. Surely, out of 197 different countries in the world there must've been another president/prime-minister/etc.. of a country that isn't ran by someone like Putin.
Now I've been mulling over this for several hours now, and a thought entered my mind not too long ago that I shouldn't support this, and withdraw all my money from ETH and ETH based tokens and put them elsewhere.
Many people invest for different reasons, some for money, some because they want to support a blockchain and help nuture its growth. I've invested for a bit of both, the money doesn't hurt but being able to help groups of people realize their ideas and turn them into usable products that can benefit the entire human population.
I believe in the blockchain technology underneath ETH, and it's smart contracts feature. But when one of the most prominent founders of Ethereum, meets a psychopathic dictator of a country for a first of it's kind meeting, it makes me question whether or not I can morally support that.
I'm not going to withdraw them right away, i might not even withdraw them, but this will be a decision that I'll be mulling over very carefully the next few days.
Yes, all politicians are sociopathic parasites, I agree. You are right to be wary. Also I spoke to VB once and told him I was concerned about bad use cases for smart contracts. He had no useful reply to these concerns. At a later point he expressed what sounded like a socialist nationalistic worldview in a chat. So he is probably not the anarchist type that Satoshi may or may not have been. Be wary and make good decisions. Let me know if you want more feedback, I have similar concerns.
Interesting, glad to know I'm not hte only one who feels this way.
I'll have to mull over your reply for a bit before getting back to you.