Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the network still falls short of being truly “trustless,” arguing that decentralization is not just about open-source code or distributed validators, but also about how many people can understand how the system works.
According to Buterin, when only a small group of experts can fully follow the protocol, trust quietly shifts from code to people — weakening the core promise of blockchain technology.
Buterin warned that Ethereum’s increasing complexity is becoming a major risk. With more upgrades, layers, and abstractions added over time, the network has become difficult for most users and developers to fully grasp.
As a result, participants are forced to rely on a limited number of highly technical contributors, which concentrates trust rather than distributing it.
Addressing the balance between innovation and clarity, Buterin said Ethereum should be willing to give up some advanced features if it makes the protocol easier to understand and review.
He stressed that simpler systems allow more people to independently verify how Ethereum works, strengthening trust without relying on authority figures.
Projects building on Ethereum echoed Buterin’s concerns. Privacy-focused layer-2 network INTMAX said that if only a small number of people can explain or audit a protocol, trustlessness breaks down.
In such cases, complexity does not remove trust but instead shifts it toward specialists.
Ethereum’s roadmap already acknowledges that the network is too complex for most users. Planned upgrades include smart contract wallets that simplify gas fees and key management, easier node operation on everyday devices, and broader education efforts.
On-chain data also shows growing long-term confidence, with exchange-held ETH dropping to 8.7% of total supply, the lowest level since 2015.
Most of the crypto community supported Buterin’s call for simplicity, while acknowledging the difficulty of reducing complexity at Ethereum’s scale.
Some users suggested AI tools could help more people understand Ethereum’s design, while others argued that complexity is unavoidable for a global blockchain. Buterin maintained that clarity should take priority when trustlessness is at risk.
If fewer people can independently verify Ethereum’s rules, bugs or unintended changes may go unnoticed longer, increasing systemic risk. Over time, this can make the network more dependent on social consensus among core developers rather than broad, technical verification by the community.
Yes, Ethereum’s design philosophy often sets norms across the industry, especially for rollups and modular chains. A visible shift toward simplicity could encourage other projects to prioritize auditability and long-term robustness over feature density.
Users may see more predictable behavior, clearer wallet interactions, and fewer edge cases during upgrades. While progress could feel slower, the trade-off would be a network that is easier to reason about and less reliant on expert interpretation.
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