Vitalik Buterin’s ‘Degen Communism’ and his vision for reducing Ethereum technical debt
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin spent April Fool’s Day writing serious and funny content on the Ethereum website and his personal blog. In both posts, he advocated for protocol simplification and improved efficiency, exploring thought-provoking ideas for the future of political and economic systems in an increasingly digital world.
In a more serious post, Buterin detailed Dencun, the latest hard fork that introduced a series of protocol simplifications as part of a section of the Ethereum roadmap called “The Purge.” These efforts aim to streamline Ethereum’s codebase, reduce technical debt, and improve the platform’s overall performance. Notable changes include reducing the functionality of the SELFDESTRUCT opcode, introducing a limited storage window for blobs, and potentially eliminating the rarely used precompilation.
This simplification is expected to make Ethereum client development and infrastructure deployment simpler, paving the way for greater decentralization and efficiency. Buterin highlighted other examples of “elimination” efforts, including Geth clients dropping support for the proof-of-work network before the merge and EIP eliminating the need to handle “empty accounts.” Additionally, the Dencun hard fork introduced an 18-day storage period for blobs, significantly reducing the storage requirements for Ethereum nodes.
Another area we aim to simplify is pre-compilation, which is the Ethereum contract that the client implements directly. As Buterin mentioned, precompilations like RIPEMD-160, Identity, BLAKE2, and MODEXP rarely serve as sources of consensus bugs and issues for new EVM implementations. The Ethereum community is considering removing this pre-compilation entirely or replacing it with equivalent EVM code.
EIP-4444, which removes the requirement that all Ethereum nodes store all historical blocks indefinitely, is set to significantly increase node decentralization on the network. Under this proposal, entities such as block explorers could store their entire history while leveraging peer-to-peer protocols to store and distribute historical data more efficiently.
Buterin also discussed proposed LOG reforms to eliminate bloom filters and simplify LOG opcodes. This change will pave the way for a separate protocol that uses zero-knowledge proofs and incrementally verifiable computation to generate provably correct “log trees” for applications that require distributed access to logs.
Additionally, the Ethereum execution layer will transition from the RLP and Merkle Patricia tree formats to the more efficient SimpleSerialize (SSZ) format, which is already in use in the consensus layer. This change will simplify Ethereum’s cryptographic data structures, potentially leading to a single SNARK-friendly hash binary Merkle tree in the long term.
Vitalik’s April Fool’s Day Food for Thought
While these technological improvements are critical to Ethereum’s long-term success, Buterin has also explored more unconventional ideas about the future of society in the digital age. In a thought-provoking April 1 post titled “Degen Communism: The Only Correct Political Ideology,” Buterin proposed a new ideology that embraces the chaos and risk-taking of the Internet while aligning incentives with the common good.
While this post is undoubtedly an April Fool’s Day joke on the surface, it raises some interesting questions about the future of our political and economic systems in an increasingly digital and decentralized world.
Central to this concept is the concept of “chaos with purpose.” This suggests that rather than suppressing the volatility and unpredictability of markets and social media, we should harness these forces to drive innovation and development. Buterin proposes a variety of mechanisms to transform the benefits of these disruptions into public goods and protect vulnerable individuals from their disadvantages.
“Degen communism” is far from a complete political ideology and is not intended to be taken completely seriously, but it emphasizes the need for innovative thinking in solving the complex social and economic problems of the 21st century. By embracing change and experimentation while prioritizing equity and social well-being, we can become better equipped to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.
As Ethereum evolves, Buterin’s vision for the platform and the broader digital landscape demonstrates a commitment to technical excellence and social responsibility. Ongoing efforts to simplify and improve the Ethereum protocol, combined with thought-provoking ideas about the future of society, demonstrate the potential of blockchain technology to drive positive change on many fronts.
Some of the ideas proposed in Buterin’s April Fool’s Day post, such as the Harberger tax on intellectual property and the “proof of stake” plan on immigration, may seem radical or unrealistic, but they serve as a reminder that meeting the challenges of this century requires . Bold and innovative thinking. As the Ethereum community works to build a more efficient, secure, and decentralized platform, it is important to consider the broader implications of these technological developments and their potential to shape the future of society.
