Buterin says Ethereum must focus on usability and decentralization to become a ‘world computer’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin used a New Year’s message on X to reflect on major technical gains in 2025 and to argue that the network’s true test is meeting its original mission, not chasing new crypto narratives. Buterin highlighted that Ethereum became faster, more reliable and better able to handle growth without sacrificing decentralization.

He pointed to changes that let the network process more activity, reduce bottlenecks and make it easier for people to run the software that keeps Ethereum operating. He warned that technical milestones alone are not the end goal and cautioned against efforts to “win the next meta,” such as tokenized dollars, political memecoins or artificially boosting usage for economic signaling.

Instead, Buterin reiterated a long-standing vision of Ethereum as a neutral, shared platform — a “world computer” on which applications can operate without fraud, censorship or third‑party control, even if their original developers disappear. He emphasized the “walkaway test” as a core benchmark: systems should keep running regardless of who maintains them, and users should remain unaffected if major infrastructure providers go offline or are compromised.

To achieve that vision, Buterin said Ethereum must meet two requirements at once: be usable at global scale and remain genuinely decentralized. That applies both to the blockchain itself and to applications that today often rely on centralized services.

Key Topics

Crypto, Ethereum, Decentralization, Usability, Blockchain, Vitalik Buterin