Vitalik Buterin Declares 2026 the Year Ethereum Reclaims Its Core Values
Vitalik Buterin has issued one of his most direct calls to action in years, arguing that Ethereum has drifted too far from its founding principles. In a new post, he says the ecosystem has compromised decentralization, privacy, and user self-sovereignty in pursuit of mainstream adoption — and that 2026 must be the year the community “takes back lost ground.”
Buterin highlighted how full nodes have become harder to run, how many dapps now rely heavily on centralized servers, and how users have gradually lost control over their own data. To change course, he is pushing for easier node operation, improved private payments, more robust social recovery wallets, and a return to applications that don’t depend on centralized infrastructure.
He pointed to upcoming upgrades like the Kohaku release and the Glamsterdam fork as critical steps toward rebuilding trustlessness in the protocol. Buterin also reiterated the importance of Ethereum passing the “walkaway test” — the idea that the network should remain secure and self-sustaining even if its core developers were to step away for decades. That will require quantum-resistant cryptography, a more resilient block-building model, and an architecture that can withstand centralization pressures long-term.
Beyond the base layer, Buterin is also calling for innovation in decentralized stablecoins that are backed by a diversified basket of assets rather than pegged to a single national currency. Such models, he argues, are essential for giving users real independence from governments and traditional financial systems.
His message is clear: Ethereum’s next chapter depends on rediscovering the values that made it meaningful in the first place — and ensuring the protocol is built to last for generations.
