Star Trek actor William Shatner who “Captain Kirk” played in the original 1960s U.S. TV series (as well as several Star Trek movies) who called basic blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts “really strange” just a few months ago seems to have so well-versed in crypto that he was defending Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin against some crypto trolls on Twitter yesterday.
On 13 June 2018, a Canadian company, Solar Alliance Energy Inc, announced that it was going to develop a 165,000 square foot solar-powered crypto mining facility in Murphysboro, Illinois, and that the 87-year-old actor (and renewable energy advocate) would be the company’s spokesperson.
However, later that day, when Chicago Tribune asked Shatner in a phone interview to explain Bitcoin, he admitted to having some difficulty understanding the basic ideas of crypto:
“The concept is so, I guess the word is bizarre. You have to blank your mind and say, ‘What is blockchain, again? How does mining operate, again?’ The concepts are really strange, and yet when you begin to grasp it, it makes sense.”
Later in the view, he said that he might go to visit the crypto mining facility once it becomes operational:
“I’m in Chicago a lot, and I live in Kentucky part of the time. I might very well do that. It’s an interesting idea to see it at work because … it’s so esoteric that it’s difficult to understand.”
But yesterday, on Twitter, Shatner seemed a lot more comfortable talking about crypto. He started by sending out a tweet in which he gave a “thumbs up” to Vladik Buterin:
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) November 7, 2018
Twitter user “premine apologist” (@decentrali) replied to Shatner with a tweet in which he called Vitalik a scammer (referring to a subreddit caled “ethereumfraud”):
He's a literal scammer https://t.co/SQqg1EZNSo pic.twitter.com/03eh4hXoiu
— premine apologist (@decentrali) November 7, 2018
Shatner then quickly tried to defend Vitalik:
Then as a coder – go develop your own blockchain technology where you can be 1000% sure of decentralization. Or shove money in a mattress. I hear that’s only overseen by the bed bug community. 🙄
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) November 7, 2018
His viewpoints don’t take into account the fact that the code has to be audited by an auditing firm and approved by consortium or it doesn’t get accepted. 🙄 He thinks it exists in a bubble. That’s why we have ERC-20, ERC-721… ERC-1701😏
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) November 7, 2018
Shatner then explained to one very impressed crypto trader (@CryptoShark) how he had come to learn so much about crypto in the past few months:
I’ve learned the basics and I’m a quick study and have friends who know exponentially more than I do. https://t.co/72RlgD4yrm
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) November 7, 2018
Featured Image Credit: Photo by “Crosa” via Flickr; licensed under “CC BY 2.0”