Vitalik Buterin Makes Important Appeal to the Ethereum Community: “If We Do This, We Will Regain Momentum!”

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin called on the ETH community to embrace a bolder vision, specifically stating that the application layer needs to be “thought from scratch.”

According to Buterin, the Ethereum ecosystem must break away from conventional thinking patterns to design next-generation applications without compromising its core principles.

Buterin stated that the Ethereum community needs to reassess its relationship with the application layer and the rest of the world. He argued that Ethereum’s core features—censorship resistance, open-source nature, privacy, and security (CROPS)—must be preserved, and that a radical questioning of current approaches, particularly at the application layer, is crucial.

The Ethereum founder stated last year that privacy has become one of the primary priorities for the ecosystem, signifying a radical shift in the application stack. According to Buterin, since Ethereum’s application infrastructure has not been developed with privacy in mind until now, it may be necessary to create a completely different application stack in this new era.

Buterin also noted that one of the key topics of discussion this year was the reassessment of the role of Layer 2 (L2) solutions. He stated that it was necessary to rethink “from scratch” which L2 models could create the strongest synergy with Ethereum, adding that this process required both a technical and a cultural transformation.

Buterin stated that the Ethereum ecosystem has long operated with a “how do we improve the existing system?” approach, arguing instead that a new mindset is needed. According to this new model, developers should reassess which applications truly create the greatest value on a robust Layer-1 infrastructure and an ever-growing toolset.

Buterin suggested that developers assume Ethereum is a completely empty network as a thought experiment. He asked them to consider how they would design initial applications in areas such as DeFi, decentralized social networks, and authentication, arguing that setting aside existing dependencies and outdated assumptions would foster creativity.

According to the Ethereum founder, this approach could be one of the keys to the ecosystem regaining momentum.

*This is not investment advice.