- Buterin has urged Ethereum developers to build products that pass the walkaway test.
- He reminded web3 developers to focus on sovereignty backed by ZK-EVM and PeerDAS.
- The Ethereum network will catalyze mainstream adoption by building scalable and sovereign apps.
Vitalik Buterin has continued to advocate for sovereignty on the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem. The Ethereum cofounder stated that the initial vision of having permissionless, decentralized applications has been realized in the past five years through the network’s upgrade led by the Merge, Fusaka.
Buterin Urges Web3 Builders to Focus on Sovereignty
Buterin posted on X earlier on Wednesday, January 14, to remind the crypto community of the importance of sovereignty on the Ethereum network. He stated that the initial Ethereum vision set in 2014 was to enable the development of secure, permissionless, and decentralized applications.
As such, Buterin urged web3 builders to build applications that foster sovereignty over centralization. Furthermore, Buterin noted that the Ethereum network has become cheaper, scalable, and still secure in the past five years.
The Ethereum network has undergone several upgrades – including the Merge and Fusaka – to help in reducing the cost of transactions and enhancing scalability. As a result, Buterin stated that web3 developers have no excuse not to build applications that pass the walkaway test.
“Ethereum is now scaling, it is now cheap, and it is on track to get more scalable and cheaper thanks to the power of ZK-EVMs. Thanks to ZK-EVM + PeerDAS, the “sharding” vision is effectively being realized. And L2s can give additional and different kinds of gains in speed on top,” Buterin stated.
Buterin commended some of the web3 platforms, such as Fileverse, for passing the walkaway test. Notably, the Fileverse platform uses Ethereum and the Gnosis chain to offer decentralized messaging and file storage.
Why Now?
Buterin has in the recent past advocated the development of permissionless applications on the Ethereum network to catalyze the mainstream adoption of digital assets and financial freedom. Furthermore, Buterin signed the Trustless Manifesto in 2025 as a way to remind the crypto community that Ethereum was created to set people free but not to make finance efficient nor make applications convenient.
The ongoing global crypto regulations have diverged from the core mission of crypto. Moreover, Web3 protocols have in the past prioritized regulatory compliance to enhance global adoption, thus falling into the trap of centralization via permissioned protocols.
Related: Vitalik Buterin Explains Why Ethereum Must Pass the “Walkaway Test”
As such, Buterin has championed the development of privacy-centric protocols that foster sovereignty on Ethereum.
What’s Next?
Currently, the Ether community has been discussing a new proposal dubbed ERC-8092 to introduce individual sovereignty. The rising demand for permissionless protocols, which advocate individual sovereignty, has sparked a bullish outlook for the Eth.
Moreover, onchain data analysis from Santiment shows Ethereum’s new wallet growth has reached new all-time high levels. As such, Standard Chartered expects Ether to outshine Bitcoin in 2026, and set a target of $7,500 by the end of this year.
Related: ETHGas Unveils GWEI Governance Token, Targets Realtime Ethereum
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