Key highlights:
- Crypto leaders fear X’s country tags could expose users to real-world risks.
- Vitalik Buterin reverses stance after warning of dangerous data leaks.
- Heated debate erupts as X unveils location reveal without user consent.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the social network X’s new feature that reveals the country of origin of user accounts. The developer called the innovation “risky” and agreed with crypto community members who have expressed concerns about privacy.
X launched the controversial feature without user consent
X Product Director Nikita Bier announced the feature’s launch a couple of days ago. He said the change is intended to ensure platform integrity and allow users to verify information. Profiles now display the account’s country of origin.
Buterin initially reacted with understanding. At first, he noted that some accounts would eventually find ways to “pretend they’re from other countries.” The developer also suggested that the feature could have positive effects, such as increasing transparency about how people from different communities view various issues.
Prediction about this “show which country the account is from” thing:
In the short term it will have lots of positive effects.
In the medium term, the sophisticated actors will find ways to pretend to be from countries that they are not. Lots of ways to rent individual people’s…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 23, 2025
However, after thinking it over, Buterin changed his mind.
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. 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.
The crypto community is concerned about security threats
Many cryptocurrency investors have expressed concerns that the feature could be used by attackers to more easily track large investors for physical attacks. Currently, the cryptocurrency community is even more focused on privacy than before due to the growth in demand for privacy coins like Zcash and Monero.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams spoke strongly against the new policy:
“Thanks, I hate it Opt-in doxxing is fine, mandatory doxxing is psychotic.”
How to disable country display
Bier clarified that there is a privacy switch to display only the region of an account “for those located in countries where there are penalties for speech.”
User X member “Langerius,” a representative of the Web3 community Hunters of Web3, explained how concerned users can opt out of the new feature:
To disable this feature: Settings and Privacy → Privacy and Security → Disable Country Visibility
Alternatively: Switch from country to region/continent in the same menu.
There are also supporters of the innovation.
Not all X users reacted negatively to the feature. Some argue that revealing an account’s location in a country as large as the United States, with a population of approximately 350 million, is unlikely to make someone easily identifiable.
Crypto venture capitalist Nic Carter said the feature is needed to prevent foreign accounts from attempting to interfere in politics by posing as residents of a particular country.
Source:: Vitalik Buterin Warns X’s New Country Tag Could Put Users at Risk