Vitalik Buterin warns of a risk of Ethereum losing its essence if decentralization remains merely a marketing gimmick without solid technical foundations.
He proposes three simple tests to assess the real decentralization of a project: resilience to team disappearance, resistance to internal attacks, and critical code size to secure.
Buterin criticizes the false promises of privacy or scalability on Layer 2, calling for a return to simple, transparent, truly decentralized, and auditable systems.
Dilemma for Ethereum: A Decade After Its Launch
In Cannes, July 2025. Ten years after the launch of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin speaks at EthCC to a full house. No suit, just a dark t-shirt and a serious look. The message is clear: the crypto industry is at a crossroads.
“We are at a pivotal moment.” This is not a stylistic effect. For Vitalik, Ethereum risks becoming simply a passing trend if decentralization remains an empty slogan.
The Illusion of Decentralization
As tech giants and institutions embrace blockchain, the ecosystem loses sight of its fundamentals. To clarify, he suggests three simple tests for any crypto project:
- The withdrawal test: if the team vanishes, do users maintain full control of their funds?
- The internal attack test: can a malicious employee collapse the app?
- The “trusted computing base” test: how many lines of code must be reliable to protect users?
Very few current projects pass these tests. Too many Web3 applications still rely on “admin” buttons, backdoors, or vulnerable web interfaces. Vitalik mentions layer 2s, DeFi dApps, and even remote manipulable “open source” front ends. The ecosystem is playing with fire.
The Trap of False Promises: Privacy, L2, and Other Illusions
Even privacy solutions are under scrutiny. “If you use zero-knowledge proofs to then connect through a centralized provider, what’s the point?” he warns. For him, privacy should be the default norm, not an hastily added option.
Concerns also arise regarding layer 2s. Their increasing complexity often hides major vulnerabilities. Ethereum risks losing its soul by aligning with technical standards that sacrifice security for scalability.
Return to Basics or Fade Away
What Vitalik advocates is not a step backward. It’s a demand for rigor. Less hype, more engineering. Less reliance on opaque code, more simple, robust, audited solutions.
The timing is significant: Ethereum celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. And with competitors like Solana on the rise, every flaw, every compromise of principles can be costly.
“If we lose that, Ethereum will simply become a thing of the past. Like many others before it.” The statement resonates like a warning. It is now up to the community to choose: uphold principles… or follow marketers.
