Ethereum Can Go Back to Its Cypherpunk Roots, Says Vitalik Buterin

The Dec. 28 blog post reiterated the core values of Ethereum, harking back to its early days when it was more “cypherpunk.” 

The early vision of Bitcoin and Ethereum was deeply idealistic, aiming to build a more open, decentralized, and censorship-resistant internet and economy. 

However, Buterin lamented that over time, this vision faded as transaction fees rose, making applications focused on payments and speculation more dominant. The culture shifted toward “degen gamblers,” he added. 

Cypherpunk is a movement advocating the use of technology to promote privacy and social change while protecting against state or corporate oppression.

Make Ethereum cypherpunk againhttps://t.co/qEiOcZLEeg

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 28, 2023

Ethereum Back to its Roots 

Nevertheless, there have been signs of a culture revival in 2023 due to rollups reducing fees, advances in privacy technology like zk-proofs, and a desire to move beyond over-financialization, he said.

Ethereum could be a testbed for open and decentralized security innovations like social recovery wallets, prediction markets, and quadratic voting, which could later influence the broader internet.

Moreover, the ideal future Web3 tech stack contains decentralized equivalents to DNS, email, payments, identities, publishing, and governance that interoperate while avoiding central points of control, said Buterin. 

He concluded that many come to crypto to get rich but become decentralization converts when they realize what the technology is capable of. 

“There are plenty of people whose first introduction to the crypto space is the desire to get rich, but who then get acquainted with the ecosystem and become avid believers in the quest to build a more open and decentralized world.”

Buterin has been busy blogging lately. Earlier this week, he proposed measures to reduce the load on the Ethereum blockchain by reducing the number of cryptographic signatures that validators need to produce. 

In May, he warned of the dangers of stretching Ethereum’s consensus past its core functions of validating blocks and securing the network.

ETH Price Doubles in 2023

Ethereum prices have perked up this week, reaching a 2023 high of $2,430 on Dec. 28. The asset has largely trailed Bitcoin and competing blockchain tokens such as Solana and Avalanche in recent months.

However, Ethereum is the world’s second-largest crypto asset and the industry standard for smart contracts. Moreover, it has doubled in price since the beginning of the year when it was trading at just $1,200.

Finally, ETH prices could surge to $15,000 in the next bull market, according to analysts who have measured gains from previous cycles and projected them forward.