Vitalik Buterin Flags Privacy Risks with X's New Country Feature

Vitalik Buterin Raises Concerns Over X Country Feature

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has voiced his apprehension regarding a new feature rolled out by X that reveals an account holder's country. He aligns with crypto users who have flagged privacy concerns surrounding this feature. X's director of product, Nikita Bier, announced the feature's launch on Saturday, positioning it as a mechanism to bolster platform integrity and empower users to verify information.

Privacy and Security Concerns

Buterin commented on Sunday that while some accounts will eventually “find ways to pretend to be from countries that they are not,” he initially believed the change could yield positive outcomes, such as enhanced visibility into the sentiments of people from various communities on different issues. However, numerous crypto users have voiced concerns that malicious actors could leverage this feature to more readily identify high-net-worth investors and target them physically, among other privacy-related anxieties.

Buterin's Response and Recommendations

“I thought about this more and I think responders are right that revealing the country non- ‘consensually without offering any opt-out option, not even stop using your account, is wrong,” Buterin later stated. He further elaborated, “In most cases, revealing country still leaves a very large anonymity set, but there are some people for whom even a few bits of leakage are risky, and they should not have their privacy retroactively rugpulled with no recourse.”

Crypto Executives Share Concerns

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams also strongly opposed the new feature, stating, “I hate it. Opt-in doxing is fine, mandatory doxing is psychotic.” Andrei David, the chief technology officer at decentralized finance platform Summer.fi, also expressed concerns about the privacy implications. “The problem isn’t showing country; it’s forcing everyone into visibility without notice. A privacy-sensitive feature should always start with the least revealing setting,” he said.

How to Opt-Out of the Feature

Bier mentioned the availability of a privacy toggle to display only an account's region, “for those in countries where speech has penalties.” X user “Langerius,” a lead at Web3 community and consulting group Hunters of Web3, shared a method for concerned users to opt out of the new feature. “If you want to hide it: 1- turn it off: settings & privacy → privacy & safety → disable country visibility 2- or switch from country to region/continent in same menu,” they explained.

Mixed Reactions to the Feature

Other X users have expressed more positive sentiments towards the new feature. Some argued that disclosing an account's location in a country as vast as the United States, with a population of approximately 350 million, is unlikely to render anyone easily identifiable. Others, including crypto venture capitalist Nic Carter, contended that the feature is crucial to prevent accounts linked to overseas users from attempting to interfere in politics by masquerading as being from a specific country.