Vitalik Buterin grabbed attention with his latest post, claiming that Ethereum is a “misplaced tool” to directly alleviate the world’s concerns.
Buterin, who has been very vocal in recent months about Ethereum’s ideals, or at least how he views them, appears again on X to discuss two of his most prominent concerns over the past year.
Vitalik talks about the two things that worry people the most
in him postthe two concerns he highlighted were:
- Concerns about the negative aspects of current world politics and AI risks.
- “The cruel reality is that Ethereum appears to lack the power to meaningfully improve people’s lives.”
Buterin argues that while “economic freedom and security” is important and will solve some problems, most of their deep concerns about the world will remain unresolved.
“It’s fine for individuals to focus on finance, but we need to be part of a larger whole that has a voice on other issues,” he wrote, before going on to discuss how networks are clearly the wrong form of tool.
Buterin says Ethereum can’t save the world
In his post, Buterin acknowledged that Ethereum is the “wrong-formed tool” to save the world. That’s because “beyond a certain point, solving the world means a form of power projection that is more akin to a centralized political organization than a decentralized technology community.”
He proposed that the Ethereum community conceptualize itself as part of an ecosystem building “sanctuary technologies.”
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“The goal is not to remake the world in Ethereum’s image,” Buterin wrote. “The goal is the opposite: detotalization.”
He believes that Ethereum is built around properties that make it unsuitable for world-saving interventions. But according to him, that doesn’t mean Ethereum doesn’t do anything, because Ethereum has some good qualities.
A good example of such a thing is creating an open, unstoppable building block that individuals or small groups can use creatively to improve their own situations or create alternatives, without the need for a single person or group to wield vast, centralized power.
The famous founder concluded his post with a powerful call to action. “After all, technology is worthless without users. But look for users, both individuals and organizations, for whom sanctuary technology is exactly what you need,” he writes.
Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation are committed to DeFi
Buterin’s comments come days after he discussed DeFi as a core part of Ethereum’s offering. In an equally long post, the popular founder also revealed that Ethereum isn’t just good for finance.
He noted that he and the Ethereum Foundation have a specific vision of what they want to get from DeFi. That is, DeFi is permissionless, open source, and can pass walk-away tests. However, he acknowledged that realizing that vision will inevitably take a lot of effort.
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Humanity may have passed the Buterin test
Buterin has a long-standing interest in ethical AI governance and coordination and has frequently spoken about the risks of dangerous AI in a world where privacy is no longer a luxury.
In a recent post, he shared his two cents on the drama between Anthropic and the Department of Defense (DOD), pointing out how Anthropic has maintained two red lines: “No fully autonomous weapons” and “No mass surveillance of American citizens.”
He appears to be reevaluating his opinion on Anthropic, but says that will require the company to stand firm against the U.S. government’s demand for unfettered access to Claude for any military purposes.
“IMO fully autonomous weapons and massive privacy violations are something we all don’t want very much. So in my ideal world, people working on these things would have access to the same open weight LLMs as everyone else, and nothing more at all,” Buterin said. I wrote About the drama.
Humans have certainly stood their ground and suffered for it. President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using the technology, and Hegseth blacklisted federal agencies as supply chain risks while the Pentagon cut ties.
Despite extensive disclosures by US authorities, Anthropic’s technology appears to have been used in the weekend attack on Iran, according to reports.
