Key Highlights
- Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum sacrificed decentralization and privacy for growth — and that this compromise must stop starting in 2026.
- He wants running full Ethereum nodes to become easy again, so users can verify the network without relying on big centralized providers.
- Buterin warns block building is becoming too centralized, putting Ethereum’s censorship resistance at risk.
- He has called for stronger privacy tools, including private payments and ways to use dapps without leaking user data.
Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin says the network has drifted away from its original goals of decentralization, privacy, and user control, and that this needs to change starting in 2026.
In a detailed post on X, Buterin stated that Ethereum has gradually compromised its core values, including decentralization, privacy, and self-sovereignty, in order to achieve mainstream adoption.
He argued that while the network has grown larger and more popular, it has also become increasingly dependent on centralized services and infrastructure, which contradicts the original reasons for creating Ethereum.
“Every compromise of values that Ethereum has made up to this point – every moment where you might have been thinking, is it really worth diluting ourselves so much in the name of mainstream adoption – we are making that compromise no longer,” Buterin wrote.
He said 2026 should be a turning point where the ecosystem actively works to undo years of what he described as “backsliding.”
Fixing nodes and block control
One of his main concerns is how difficult it has become for ordinary users to run full Ethereum nodes. Full nodes give people the ability to authenticate the blockchain personally, rather than trusting big corporations and server farms across the ocean. The process of being a node, once simple, is now investment-intensive and technical.
Buterin spoke of solutions such as ZK-EVM and updates to light clients such as Helios, to re-enable local verification.
He also highlighted that block building is getting more centralized, where a few large-scale builders are controlling the inclusion of a lot of transactions in a very centralized manner. This impacts the censorship resistance of Ethereum and needs to be resolved in terms of protocol design.
Privacy, wallets, and dApps
Privacy was another major concern. Buterin said most Ethereum apps today leak large amounts of user data to centralized RPC providers and third-party servers.
He pointed to research areas like ORAM and PIR, which aim to let users request blockchain data without revealing what they are looking for.
He also called for private payments that feel as smooth as normal transactions. He said privacy tools on Ethereum have often been hard to use, fragile, or easy to censor, and that future upgrades should support private transactions by default.
Wallet design was another area he highlighted. He called for better “social recovery” wallets that protect users if they lose their seed phrase or are hacked, without giving companies or platforms hidden control over their funds. He also said safer default security features, such as “timelocks”, should become more common.
Buterin criticized how decentralized apps have evolved. He said many dapps started as simple, static pages but have turned into large applications that depend on centralized servers. If those servers go offline or are compromised, users can lose access or even be tricked into signing malicious transactions. He wants to see more on-chain and IPFS-based interfaces so users can still access their assets even if a project’s servers disappear.
Long-term goals
Buterin said upcoming upgrades, including the Kohaku release and the Glamsterdam fork, are expected to begin addressing some of these issues. However, he stressed that no single upgrade will solve everything and that rebuilding Ethereum’s original values will take many years.
Earlier this week, Buterin said Ethereum must pass what he called the “walkaway test.” By this, he means the network should be able to continue operating securely and reliably for decades, even if its current leaders step away.
He said Ethereum should aim to be “cryptographically safe for a hundred years,” with long-term improvements like quantum-resistant cryptography, more scalable architecture, and a block-building system that resists centralization.
He also called for renewed effort around decentralized stablecoins. Buterin said truly independent stablecoins are necessary if Ethereum is to offer an alternative to the traditional financial system. He suggested stablecoins backed by a diversified basket of assets and currencies, instead of being tied mainly to the US dollar, to reduce reliance on any single government or economy.
Overall, Buterin’s message was that Ethereum’s next phase should focus less on convenience and rapid expansion, and more on rebuilding privacy, decentralization, and user control — even if that path is slower and more technically demanding.
