Sleuth Accuses Ethereum Co-Founder of Encouraging Fraudulent Acts

• Mr. Huber accused Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, of encouraging fraud.
• Lubin asked Ethereum investors to disguise themselves by creating multiple identities.
• Christoph Jentzsch said adopting multiple identities is basic functionality in crypto.

Mr. Huber, an acclaimed Sleuth on X (formerly Twitter), has accused Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, of encouraging fraud in the crypto space. Although he mistakenly tagged Vitalik Buterin as the speaker in an audio he shared, Mr. Huber alleged that Lubin was being fraudulent when he called Ethereum investors to disguise themselves by creating multiple pseudonymous identities to avoid scaring the public.

The Sleuth shared an audio clip titled “Ethereum: Some Economic Considerations.” The audio clip captured Lubin saying that a person can buy Ethereum from any member with different identities by limiting the unit size to disguise. Hence, individuals who want to invest millions of dollars can do so using multiple identities.

In Lubin’s defense, Christoph Jentzsch, a former Ethereum developer, said adopting multiple identities is basic functionality in crypto. According to him, one person can have many accounts, making the size of the investment private. Jentzsch believes investors being private was a known feature of the crowdsale. “This was known information at the time of the sale,” he said.

According to the former Ethereum developer, owning multiple accounts with different identities would have been an issue if Ethereum consciously sold tokens as securities. He noted that the situation is different because Ethereum was sold as a commodity. Hence, the perspective of the Ethereum team from the beginning is that the digital token is a commodity.

Mr. Huber’s post appeared to have ignited an argument among some crypto users on the X social media platform. There is a divide among users on the proper classification of Ethereum, with many suggesting that Ethereum should be classified as a security. Nevertheless, Jentzsch insisted that the flagship altcoin is a commodity, citing Gary Gensler’s recent hearing, where he never said Ethereum is a security.