Vitalik Buterin Urges Ethereum to Break DeFi News Boundaries, Focus on Real-World Applications

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently suggested that while decentralized finance (DeFi News) has made significant progress, Ethereum's future should not be limited to repetitive innovation in financial applications. He emphasized that any experimentation must be premised on not compromising the underlying security and decentralization principles of the network. Undermining these core safeguards would erode users' trust in Ethereum as a globally trusted infrastructure.

He pointed out that the application layer currently built on Ethereum—including wallets, oracles, Layer 2 networks, etc.—mostly does not have privacy protection as a core design element. While these systems are active, they are often driven by market speculation, excessively focusing on short-term gains and trending topics, while neglecting the technological possibilities of providing actual support to those facing censorship, financial exclusion, or economic instability.

This view has resonated widely within the developer community. As Ethereum becomes a mainstream global smart contract platform, the challenges it faces have shifted from technical scaling to value proposition: should it continue to be a breeding ground for speculative assets, or transform into an underlying protocol supporting social equity and digital rights? Currently, the market is experiencing structural differentiation: short-term traders are keen on meme coins and hyped NFTs, while long-term builders are dedicated to creating viable decentralized applications. Buterin argues that while solidifying Ethereum as a neutral financial infrastructure, bolder exploration should be encouraged at the application layer, such as privacy-enhancing technologies, censorship-resistant identity systems, and decentralized social protocols. He calls on developers to go beyond incremental optimization and consider which technologies can truly solve critical real-world problems. The next phase of Ethereum is not about fine-tuning transaction volume or Gas fees, but about whether it can become a key force in promoting social resilience and digital inclusion.