“Self-custody is important, but difficult.”

Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin spoke at the LaBitConf conference held yesterday in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was asked for his opinion on the case of the FTX exchange, which filed for bankruptcy after the alleged fraudulent actions of its directors came to light.

As CryptoNews reports, users of the exchange fear for the future of the cryptocurrencies they had deposited on the platform. Buterin addressed the issue and cited two lessons he believes can be learned from what happened.

First, the Russian-Canadian computer scientist. calls for avoiding generalizations. “The big message I would like people to take away, and the noncrypto world as well, is that we don’t say that ‘cryptography’ has failed, but that a certain part has failed, but that there are others that have succeeded.”

FTX is a Bahamas-based exchange (a choice motivated by U.S. regulations), run by a person with many political connections. This is what ended up breaking it and creating losses of millions of dollars.

Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum.

Buterin emphasizes the fact that a Centralized exchange has failed, but “networks have not failed, Bitcoin has not failed.”Ethereum did not fail, and the Solana network also did not have any other problems because of this crisis.”

That said, Buterin stressed its importance. Every user to guard their cryptocurrencies.. In this way, digital assets are not at the mercy of to the decisions of stock exchanges or other platforms.

Why does the community use exchanges to store their cryptocurrencies?

The co-creator of Ethereum argued that those who hold cryptocurrencies on FTX are not “going crazy,” but “simply want a place to store their coins.”

With this in mind, Buterin calls for reflection on why this phenomenon is happening. “Why do people use exchanges and not self-encrypted wallets?” the computer scientist wondered, and then answered himself:

Self-custody is still difficult. We have to take care of the 12 words, the wallet, see where we store it. If we store the 12 words in our house, what happens if it gets burned or stolen? This possibility still exists.

Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of Ethereum.

While acknowledging that self-custody Cryptocurrencies can be difficult for some people and from thinking that the process should be made easier, Buterin explains that it is still the best option.

“Centralized options can be attractive to Sam. [Bankman-Fied, el CEO de FTX] seemed like a good and reliable person, but we saw the reality last week,” Buterin said, concluding with an appeal to developers, “We need to think about how to make self-care the first choice of people.”