Ethereum’s Buterin Tipped for Nobel Prize for Economics Award

Renowned economists recommend Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for a prestigious economics award for his contribution to the field.

The economists likened Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm to changing car tires while driving.

During the October 8 episode of the Marginal Revolution podcast, economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok made an unusual pick by choosing Ethereum’s (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin as the deserved winner of the upcoming 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics. According to Cowen, Buterin deserves the award for monetarily contributing to economics by creating a currency and following the footsteps of the Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.

I have an unusual pick, I suspect you’ll agree with me. I would give it to Vitalik Buterin. Vitalik has built a platform, created a currency, you could say refuted Mises regression theorem in the process, obviously following in the footsteps of Satoshi [Nakamoto].

The Award Scheme and the Recommendation of the Ethereum Co-founder

For context, the Nobel Prize for Economics awards also referred to as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, was established by Alfred Nobel in 1895.

Each September, the Economics Prize Committee of the Academy, made up of five elected members, submits invitations to thousands of scientists and University professors in different countries to nominate a candidate for the prize in economics. Upon receipt of all proposals and attached evidence, the Prize Committee and specially appointed experts review them and choose the potential laureates.

Having carefully assessed the criteria, Tabarrok emphasized that Buterin has continued to contribute towards the mechanism design of Ethereum through its groundbreaking transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

As we reported, this move reduced energy consumption by 99% and was executed with no major disruption. Explaining how interesting this sounds, Tabarrok likened this transition to a popular video where four Saudi Arabian men managed to change two tires of a car while driving on the other two tires.

I think you would have thought [Bitcoin and Ethereum] were impossible if you had thought about it in advance, yet they’re actually working in the real world. Not only that, but Vitalik has continued to contribute towards the mechanism design of Ethereum by going to a proof-of-stake…He writes on monetary economics and no economist has anything better to say on the topics he writes on. And that, to me, is worth a lot in this consideration. And he’s super polite, [he]would bow to the king or whatever is required. He’d be wonderful at the ceremony, there’s no issues there at all.

Buterin, who co-founded Ethereum with four others, has been at the forefront of the community and has bagged several awards in the process. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious IT software prize at the 2014 World Technology Awards after beating the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and others. A few months before that, he obtained a maintenance grant of $100,000 from the Thiel Fellowship to enable him to progress his project. Today, Ethereum is the second largest crypto asset with a market capitalization of $289 billion.