From Russia With Love: Buterin Vs Pham in Twitter Throwdown Round 2

Theory: Kevin Pham is secretly paid by the Chinese to say crazy things to make the bitcoin community look like hyper-individualist insane gun nuts, thereby encouraging its replacement by centralized cryptocurrencies that the Chinese gov can more easily influence.

Kevin Pham's comments regarding Buterin's potential collusion with the Russian government stem from a meeting between the Ethereum founder and the Russian state-owned development bank Vnesheconombank in August last year, which resulted in the creation of a blockchain research center at the National University of Science and Technology in Moscow.

While Russian interest in blockchain technology is arguably more likely to be primarily focused on control rather than integration and innovation, the state is largely considered pro-crypto as a whole, with Russian President Vladimir Putin stating that "The digital economy isn't a separate industry, it's essentially the foundation for creating brand new business models."

Pham, a self-described "Bitcoiner, Truth Seeker, and First Principles Thinker" who "Works to protect BTC and free speech" supports his market commentary primarily through donations sent by supporters.

Pham does appear to be a staunch opponent of Ethereum - and Buterin in particular - as the majority of his posts over the last year have been anti-ETH in nature.

Erin's response to Pham's tweets may have desultory, but the impact on Pham is palpable.

Subsequent to the exchange, Pham took to Twitter to post a series of Tweets to accuse Vitalik of corruption, criminal behavior, and racism, all of which were ignored by Buterin.

It's not clear why Pham chose to engage Buterin on Twitter, but the accusations leveled at the Russian programmer are clearly somewhat ridiculous.

Is Buterin a Russian plant? Is Kevin Pham a secret Chinese anti-crypto paid shill, or perhaps even an unknowing Manchurian candidate pawn of shadowy international cabals that seek the subversion and or destruction of distributed ledger technology as a whole?

Who would win in a cage fight between Vitalik "Skeletal Cyberlord" Buterin and Kevin "Send Me Bitcoin" Pham? Unfortunately, the world will never know.