Vitalik Buterin: Organizations and cypherpunks are not necessarily allies or opponents

Vitalik Buterin believes that the relationship between organizations — including governments and businesses — and the cypherpunk community is more complex than the “friend or foe” perspective. According to him, organizations often seek to maximize control over what they can manage while minimizing external dependencies, making them increasingly concerned with data sovereignty and security.

Buterin notes that many people mistakenly think that tools emphasizing personal data sovereignty only appeal to tech enthusiasts, while the “serious” circles see them as impractical. He argues that the opposite is true: many large organizations even have stricter security and data control policies than ordinary users.

In the upcoming period, he predicts that organizations will continue to reduce reliance on third parties and strengthen self-managed operational infrastructure. However, this does not mean they want to reduce user dependence on them — and that is precisely the goal the Ethereum community should pursue by building tools that enable individuals to achieve self-custody wallets and asset sovereignty.

Regarding stablecoins, Buterin believes that asset issuers will prioritize blockchains with governance centers that are not overly dominated by a single country. Governments may push for stronger KYC requirements, but at the same time, privacy-preserving technologies will continue to develop, including zero-knowledge proof solutions (zero-knowledge proof). He predicts that debates will emerge around mechanisms such as ZK-based proof of asset provenance.

Buterin also thinks that organizations will want to control their wallets and participate in staking ETH independently, rather than relying entirely on intermediaries. According to him, this trend could help increase the decentralization of staking activities on Ethereum. However, building secure and user-friendly self-custody wallets for the general public remains a task for the Ethereum cypherpunk community, with approaches like smart contract wallets and social recovery mechanisms.

He emphasizes that Ethereum is a “world computer” capable of resisting censorship, and not all activities on it need or can be universally agreed upon. The key is to develop financial, social, and identity systems that protect individual autonomy, strong enough to develop alongside and compete with centralized models.

According to Buterin, the cypherpunk community does not necessarily have to be in outright conflict with organizations. Instead, a mutually beneficial cooperative approach can be adopted when appropriate, while still firmly defending their core interests — which is to build a digital infrastructure that safeguards freedom and individual sovereignty.