Vitalik Buterin warns Ethereum has ‘backslid’ on decentralization and privacy
Vitalik Buterin wants improved private payments, easier running of full nodes, decentralized apps that don’t rely on centralized services, and more on-chain privacy.
The Ethereum ecosystem’s core values of decentralization, privacy and self-sovereignty have been sacrificed in pursuit of mainstream adoption and that trend must stop now, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said.
“2026 is the year that we take back lost ground in terms of self-sovereignty and trustlessness,” Buterin posted to X on Friday:
To reverse that trend, Buterin wants to see improved private payments, lower the barrier to entry for users to run full nodes and decentralized apps that don’t run on centralized servers.