Vitalik Buterin said the original Web3 vision had ‘faded into the background’.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin Web3’s original vision, he said, “has somewhat faded into the background” as many projects have moved away from the core idea of ​​decentralization.

in blog post In a book published today titled “Recreate the Ethereum Cypherpunk,” Buterin said there was a major ideological rift “with a significant portion of the non-blockchain decentralized community seeing the cryptocurrency world as a distraction rather than a kindred spirit or a strong ally.” I wrote that there is.

He noted that the term Web3 was originally coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood. “Rather than initially seeing it as ‘Bitcoin and smart contracts,’ Gavin thought of it more broadly as one of a set of technologies that could together form the foundational layer of a more open internet stack.”

Buterin said people use cryptocurrencies to send and save money in many countries, but they often do this through centralized means, such as internal transfers from centralized exchange accounts or trading USDT on Tron.

Transaction fees rise

Buterin pointed out that the ‘number one culprit’ that he would like to point out as the root cause of the change is the increase in transaction fees.

“If the cost to spend on the chain was $0.001 or even $0.1, you could imagine people creating all kinds of applications that use blockchain in a variety of ways, including non-financial ways,” he wrote.

But when transaction fees exceed $100, “degen gamblers” will be willing to continue playing, or even more willing to play, he added.

If Degen gamblers, who are often seen as high-risk traders, become the largest group using the chain at scale, “this adjusts public perception and the internal culture of the cryptocurrency space,” he said.

positive development

While Buterin pointed out existing issues in the community, he also outlined positive developments within Ethereum in 2023. He wrote that advances in scaling solutions include: roll upSecond-generation privacy solutions, the emergence of account abstraction and light client It may offer hope for a revival of the spirit of decentralization.

Buterin said there is a growing recognition that unchecked centralization and excessive financialization cannot be the essence of cryptocurrencies. These growing realizations and the core technologies mentioned above “give us the opportunity to move in a different direction,” Buterin wrote.

Zero-knowledge proof

According to Buterin, zero-knowledge proofs and increased developer friendliness open up new possibilities for consumer applications and privacy technologies.

Buterin envisions a future in which Ethereum becomes a hub for a variety of applications, from decentralized social media to secure anonymous voting systems.

“These technologies are most widely adopted as ways to improve the scalability of Ethereum, such as ZK rollups, but they are also very useful for privacy,” he continued.

“In particular, the programmability of zero-knowledge proofs means that the false binary of ‘anonymous but dangerous’ and ‘secure with KYC applied’ can be overcome and privacy protection and various kinds of authentication and verification can be achieved simultaneously. “He added.

Repetition of core values

Buterin also urged the Ethereum community to follow its core values: open global participation, decentralization, censorship resistance, auditability, trusted neutrality, and collaborative mindset and tool building.

“It’s very possible to build something within the cryptocurrency ecosystem that doesn’t adhere to these values,” he said. “You can build a system that you call ‘layer 2,’ but in reality it’s a highly centralized system protected by multi-signatures, and we have no plans to move to something more secure.”

“Resisting these pressures is difficult, but failing to do so risks losing the inherent value of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and creating a replica of the existing web2 ecosystem with additional inefficiencies and additional steps,” he added.

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