Buterin sees the situation differently. In a podcast with Lex Fridman, he noted the differences between holding values close to heart, and knowing when to compromise. The DAO fork was a pragmatic decision, he said, based on a particular set of circumstances. At a technical level it was possible to revert the attacker’s transactions, which is not always the case after a hack, he said. But more importantly, the network was just born, relatively, and full of promise – why risk knocking it off its feet?