A false rumor that Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, had passed away in June 2017 was at the center of the controversy. So, what is a death hoax? We will tell you the false story of Ethereum's founder's death in this article.
What Is A Death Hoax?
A premeditated report of someone's death that is later shown to be false is known as a death hoax. In other circumstances, it can be because the person purposefully pretended to die.
Celebrity death hoaxes have been widely spread online in the twenty-first century. However, they are not a recent phenomenon; after the passing of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, there were fake rumors of the deaths of Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, and other well-known figures of the day.
How Did Vitalik Buterin Disapprove Death Hoax?
The inventor of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, made an unorthodox use of the technology he created in 2017, using the blockchain network itself to dispute his own demise.
The scam first appeared on the 4chan online site, where posters claimed that Buterin had perished in a car accident. The article and a related tweet were later taken down after it was discovered that the story was false, but at least one online news outlet, VioNews, had picked up the story.
After hearing the claims, Buterin eventually posted an ethereum block number and associated hash on social media to demonstrate that he was, in fact, still alive. It was a similar move to one made by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in January, when he used the bitcoin blockchain as a "proof of life" tool during a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session amid reports of his own passing.
Recaps
The market for ether, the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network, was affected by the news that Buterin had passed away, with the rumor sending the price below $300. That is called a death hoax. I hope you understand the question “what is death hoax ” by reading the article above.
