Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, shared a New Year’s message on Thursday reflecting on significant technical advancements and asserting that the true challenge for the network lies in achieving its foundational mission instead of merely following current crypto trends.
In his New Year’s post on X, Buterin highlighted Ethereum’s substantial progress in 2025, making it faster, more dependable, and better equipped to grow while maintaining its decentralized nature. He cited enhancements that enable the network to accommodate increased activity, minimize bottlenecks, and simplify the process for individuals to operate the software that powers Ethereum.
Collectively, these developments bring Ethereum closer to becoming a unique shared computing platform rather than just another blockchain.
However, Buterin emphasized that technical achievements are not the ultimate objective.
“Ethereum must do more to achieve its own articulated goals,” he stated, warning against the tendency to “win the next meta,” which can involve tokenized dollars, political memecoins, or artificially inflating network usage for economic signaling purposes.
Instead, Buterin reiterated the enduring vision of Ethereum as a “world computer”—a neutral, shared platform for applications to operate without dependency on centralized intermediaries.
This vision emphasizes applications built to function free from fraud, censorship, or third-party oversight, even if their original creators are no longer involved. He also mentioned the “walkaway test,” which stresses that systems should remain operational regardless of who manages them, as a vital standard. Furthermore, he stressed the need for resilience, arguing that users should not be affected if major infrastructure providers go offline or face breaches.
These characteristics, he noted, were once commonplace for everyday tools before the emergence of subscription-based digital services that confine users to centralized platforms. “Ethereum represents a challenge to this,” Buterin articulated.
To thrive, he contended, Ethereum must fulfill two criteria simultaneously: it needs to be usable on a global scale while remaining genuinely decentralized. This challenge extends beyond the blockchain itself, including the software used to run nodes and engage with the network, as well as applications built upon it, which frequently rely on centralized services despite employing decentralized protocols.
Buterin recognized that progress is already underway and mentioned the existence of powerful tools to advance this initiative further. His message served as a reminder that recent technical efforts are essential for positioning Ethereum as robust infrastructure for finance, identity, governance, and other foundational internet services.
Whether Ethereum can realize these aspirations will become clearer as the next phase of the network transitions from upgrades to practical application, testing how its principles withstand scale.
