Quick take:
- Time magazine has released its first-ever full magazine issue as an NFT
- Ethereum’s Vitalik Butern featured on the cover of the NFT issue of Time magazine
- Vitalik discussed the future of crypto including the dangers of overeager investors and the potential for Ethereum to change the world
Time magazine has released its first-ever full magazine issue that will be available as an NFT.
With its latest magazine, Time becomes the first digital or print publication to release and issue on the blockchain.
The President at Time, Keith A. Grossman, further elaborated the significance of this achievement through the following statement.
As Time continues to push the boundaries as to what is possible within the web3 ecosystem, producing the first-ever full magazine on the blockchain seemed like a natural extension for our brand, and we knew this issue, in particular, would be cherished by our community.
Ethereum’s Vitalik Features on the Cover of Time Magazine’s first NFT Issue
The first-ever Time magazine issued fully as an NFT is also significant in that it features Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin on the cover.
The team at Time also interviewed the Ethereum creator where they discussed all things crypto and blockchain.
To begin with, Mr. Buterin expressed his fears at the potential of blockchain technology deviating on a tangent to cause more harm than good. He went on to give an example of overeager investors in the NFT industry. He said:
The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling.
However, Vitalik expressed optimism that Ethereum and blockchain technology will be used for the greater good through all sorts of sociopolitical experimentations such as ‘fairer voting systems, urban planning, universal basic income and public-works projects’.
Vitalik also added that he wants Ethereum ‘to be a counterweight to authoritarian governments and to upend Silicon Valley’s stranglehold over our digital lives’. He however acknowledged that the decentralized nature of blockchain meant that Ethereum was in the hands of its developers, investors and users.
Trolls Target Vitalik for Featuring on Time Magazine
Vitalik’s appearance on the cover of Time magazine’s first-ever NFT issue elicited mostly positive reactions from the crypto community.
However, there were those who went on to troll the Ethereum creator for having graced the cover of the famous magazine.
Mr. Buterin highlighted some of the negative reactions through the following Twitter thread. He also went on to shrug off the criticism via a joke about mistaking Tom Brady for Tom Cruise from the Mission Impossible movie franchise.
I didn't even know who Tom Brady is, had to ask people around me. My best guess was that he was the actor from Mission Impossible. pic.twitter.com/MLWVcbtPHc
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 18, 2022