His name is Vitalik Buterin and after dedicating the cover of its most recent edition to him, TIME has named him the King of Cryptocurrencies .

The 28-year-old Russian is one of the founders of Ethereum , an open source platform that allows users to create applications and that hosts digital money and global payments. The digital currency with which Ethereum works is Ether, which has become the second most used cryptocurrency in the world (only behind Bitcoin). And although digital currencies are experiencing a great moment and their use is beginning to be democratized, Buterin confesses to being concerned about the image problem of the industry that he helped create. In the interview, the young man talks about a “dystopian potential” if digital assets are not used correctly. Buterin explains that just as technology has motivated creation and entrepreneurship, it has also been used as a vehicle for tax evasion, money laundering, and scams.

According to the interview, Vitalik Buterin’s vision of the platform goes far beyond cryptocurrency, and NFTs bought and sold in millions of dollars : for him, Ethereum is a platform for experimentation and development that can serve as a counterweight to authoritarian government policies.

THE DAY VITALIK DECLARED NOT KNOWING WHO TOM BRADY WAS

After the broadcast of the interview, Vitalik Buterin’s appearance became a trend and was compared negatively with the famous quarterback, Tom Brady , but come to less. The young man posted a compilation of the tweets that had seemed funniest to his account and then confessed: “I didn’t even know who Tom Brady was, I had to ask the people around me. My best guess was that he was the actor from Mission: Impossible.”

I didn’t even know who Tom Brady is, had to ask people around me. My best guess was that he was the actor from Mission Impossible. pic.twitter.com/MLWVcbtPHc

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 18, 2022

Shortly after, it was Tom Brady himself who came to Buterin’s defense with a tweet declaring himself a fan: “How about Vitalik! You may not know me, but I just wanted to tell you that I am a huge fan of yours. Thank you for everything you have built in the world of cryptocurrencies, without that @Autograf it would not have been possible. I hope to meet you one day.”

In addition to having won seven Super Bowls and being considered one of the best football players in history, Tom Brady is the founder of Autograph , a marketplace for NFT’s based on sports themes.

His tweet praising Vitalik has more than 83 thousand likes.

What’s up Vitalik! You may not know me but just wanted to say I’m a big fan of yours. thank you for everything you’ve built in the world of crypto, otherwise@Autograph wouldn’t have been possible. Hope I get to meet you some day https://t.co/W6PxS5P78M

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) March 19, 2022