The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, now says the crypto-currency community needs to grow up - or else he's out.

Ethereum took the crypto-community by storm after it was launched in 2015. It nearly reached $80 Billion in total market cap for a period of time, before settling at it's current market cap of about $69 Billion. For a period of time, it nearly eclipsed Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency. Now, however, it has been replaced by Ripple in 2nd and bumped into the third place on the list.

Buterin criticized that he perceived the crypto-currencies had become highly speculative, and did not add enough real-world value.

Futuristic's Take

Buterin certainly has a point - crypto-currency prices are likely primarily driven by speculation. Sadly, the uprise in Bitcoin has resulted in skyrocketing transaction fees that have caused Steem, among other retailers, to drop the Bitcoin payment option.

In many ways, I can see how the community has leaned away from real-world applications and towards speculation. Part of that is due to the rise of ICO's - which more or less act as a company's stock. This has only encouraged people to speculate on crypto-currency prices.

What do you think?

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