Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) co-founder and one of the biggest voices in the cryptocurrency space, Vitalik Buterin, praised the ecosystem's free speech ideals. However, the assertion faced backlash from a group of people on social media.

What Happened: The man behind one of the biggest blockchain projects took to social platform X to take pride in Ethereum's culture of welcoming criticism and not silencing voices with negative feedback on its work.

"Some wave the ideal of “open discourse” as a flag, some take it seriously," Buterin said, in an apparent dig at censorship happening on other blockchain platforms. 

These claims, however, were challenged by social media users who narrated facing significant censorship by Ethereum influencers. 

An X user going by the pseudonym dubzy responded, "Well I told someone that eth fees were expensive and he abused me for 13 minutes, explain that?" 

Matthew Gould, founder and CEO of blockchain firm Unstoppable Domains, said he faced the exact opposite of what Buterin preached, including heavy censorship by some projects on the network and condemnation of divergent opinions on their operations.

Why It Matters: Constructive criticism of technology and processes is critical to any industry’s overall progress, as any expert will tell you.

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko endorsed Buterin's view and deemed it an industry-wide phenomenon.

"The whole industry is awesome. You don't see Microsoft and Google and Apple engineers all in one chat room constantly challenging each others design decisions," Yakavenko wrote while responding to Buterin's post.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Ethereum was exchanging hands at $3,089.07, down 1.43% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. 

Photo by Alexey Smyshlyaev on Shutterstock.

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