Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has emphasized the need to restore the platform’s core principles of decentralization, privacy, and self-sovereignty by 2026. He stated that compromises made for mainstream acceptance must end, urging for significant improvements in various aspects of the ecosystem.
Buterin highlighted the importance of enhancing private payment methods and simplifying the process for users to operate full nodes and decentralized applications. He noted that the complexity of decentralized apps has increased significantly, compromising user data privacy.
Upcoming upgrades, such as the Kohaku release and the Glamsterdam fork, are expected to help revert these trends. Buterin expressed the goal of making Ethereum self-sustainable, aiming for a protocol that remains secure for a century without ongoing developer intervention.
Additionally, he called for innovations in decentralized stablecoins to ensure users have more freedom from traditional financial systems. Buterin believes these changes are crucial for Ethereum to secure a more prominent position in the blockchain landscape.