Vitalik's speech rings the alarm for Ethereum: Decentralization cannot just be a slogan, we must avoid ETH becoming a relic of the times.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated: “If Ethereum is only left with a slogan, it will eventually become a tear of the times.” He believes that decentralization must evolve from a slogan into a concrete user assurance, otherwise it may become another hollow promise. (Background: Vitalik casually mentioned the ‘Ethereum Year of Great Leap Forward Plan’: After L1 expansion, throughput will increase tenfold) (Background Supplement: Vitalik’s mathematical model reveals: When will Rollup move towards ‘complete decentralization’? System security is key) At the Ethereum community conference (EthCC) held in Cannes, France, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a speech wearing his signature jeans and black T-shirt, stating: “If Ethereum is only left with a slogan, it will eventually become a tear of the times.” He believes that decentralization must evolve from a slogan into a concrete user assurance, otherwise it may become another hollow promise. Vitalik proposed three major tests for decentralization. He pointed out that the cryptocurrency industry is at a historic “turning point,” and decentralization must become a “verifiable user guarantee.” He mentioned that as the industry moves towards mainstream with the support of large enterprises and political figures, builders need to return to the ecosystem and work around decentralization and meeting user needs. In this regard, he proposed three “practical tests” that every cryptocurrency project should pass: Exit test, to examine whether users can still retrieve their assets after the core team disappears; Internal attack test, to assess the damage scope when malicious employees or the frontend are compromised; Trusted computing foundation test, to measure how much code and authority users need to trust. He warned that most Layer 2, DeFi, and decentralized frontends hide “one-click upgrade” backdoors, and even zero-knowledge proof schemes, if accessed through third-party logins, may expose complete transaction history. Therefore, it is necessary to examine whether any project can pass the above three tests. Diverse identity protects privacy Additionally, on the issue of privacy, he expressed concerns about Worldcoin-type single digital identity systems even if they use zero-knowledge proofs, fearing the emergence of “personality merging,” forced information disclosure, and centralized surveillance risks. Therefore, Vitalik advocates for a “Pluralistic ID” model, allowing users to selectively disclose information based on context through systems like Gitcoin Passport or Ethereum certification services (EAS), maintaining anonymity and resistance to censorship. Countdown to the tenth anniversary: Competitive chains are closing in It is worth noting that Ethereum will celebrate its tenth anniversary on July 30. In this regard, Vitalik stated that over the past few months, he has been under pressure from the community to resolve core protocol issues. He stated that if these issues cannot be resolved, the Ethereum blockchain may lose its competitive edge. He added that the next phase of Ethereum’s history means building systems that can pass the “exit test,” narrowing the trusted codebase, and resisting internal attacks. This includes balancing engineering design with simple, robust solutions. He concluded: If we lose this point, Ethereum will inevitably, ultimately also perish like many other things before it. Related Reports Vitalik’s new proposal for Ethereum expansion: Increase gas limit and reduce node demand, creating partially stateless nodes EVM should retire! Vitalik proposes to switch to RISC-V, ZK proof efficiency can be improved by more than a hundred times Zhao Changpeng CZ: Donated $10 million BNB to Vitalik months ago to fund V God’s DeSci research project “Vitalik’s speech rings the alarm for Ethereum: Decentralization cannot just be a slogan, must avoid ETH becoming a tear of the times” This article was first published in BlockTempo “The Most Influential Blockchain News Media.”