- Ethereum co-founder condemns Polymarket’s pregnancy prediction market.
- Polymarket claims Tiffany Fong was “in on” the controversial poll.
- Incident highlights Buterin’s recent focus on privacy in the crypto space.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly criticized prediction market platform Polymarket for what he described as a “tasteless” invasion of privacy. This was after the platform created a betting market on whether YouTube personality Tiffany Fong would become pregnant before July.
On February 18, Polymarket shared a tweet featuring a screenshot of their prediction market asking “Tiffany Fong pregnant before July?” This was shared alongside a photograph of Fong in what appears to be a pink dress on the White House lawn. The post included speculation about Fong’s personal life.
Vitalik called Polymarket’s post violation of privacy
Buterin responded firmly to the post, writing: “fwiw I personally think this is tasteless and violation of a person’s privacy and dignity.” His comment quickly gained traction, receiving over 3,200 likes and nearly 400,000 impressions.
Polymarket responded defensively to Buterin’s criticism, claiming “she was in on it,” followed by a request for “a 30x long eth with the entire foundation budget as an apology.” The platform’s dismissive tone drew additional criticism from other users in the replies.
The exchange took an interesting turn when crypto Twitter personality Rostyк.eth questioned Polymarket’s practices, asking: “Does it mean you guys are doing insider trading?” This query highlighted potential ethical concerns about prediction markets having privileged information about the subjects of their betting pools.
Another user, pointed out a potential conflict of interest, noting: “wait a second, can’t she just go all-in and then take any side of the bet she wants and still win? as long as she’s willing to travel to california that is.”
The controversy comes at a time when Buterin has been increasingly vocal about the importance of privacy in the Ethereum ecosystem. In a recent blog post, he emphasized that “privacy is an important guarantor of decentralization.” He argued that “whoever has the information has the power, ergo we need to avoid centralized control over information.”
The Ethereum co-founder noted that while the cryptocurrency space has its origins in privacy-focused projects like Chaumian Ecash, the industry has “more recently undervalued privacy for what is ultimately a bad reason.” He explained that before zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARKs), the industry lacked ways to offer privacy in a decentralized manner.
“Today, however, privacy can no longer be ignored,” Buterin wrote. He pointed to increasing AI capabilities for data collection and analysis, and even future concerns about brain-computer interfaces potentially “reading our minds.”
