Vitalik Buterin criticizes copy-paste Ethereum scaling projects

A report from Crypto says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the growing trend of launching similar EVM-based layer-2 chains, arguing that copy-paste designs have slowed meaningful innovation in Ethereum’s scaling ecosystem. Buterin warned that creating more EVM chains with optimistic bridges and week-long withdrawal delays has become a default approach, comparing the trend to repeated forks in early DeFi governance that he says sapped imagination and pushed infrastructure into a dead end.

He also argued the Ethereum base layer is already scaling and will provide significantly more EVM-compatible blockspace, reducing the need for additional generic layer-1 networks or loosely connected EVM chains. Buterin urged developers to build systems that introduce genuinely new capabilities—citing privacy-focused designs, application-specific efficiency and ultra-low latency execution as examples—and to be honest about how closely their projects are actually connected to Ethereum.