Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said this week that the ecosystem needs to rethink its applications, culture, and technology path. He drew a hard line around the base layer: Ethereum should not give up censorship resistance, privacy, security, or open source. He grouped those properties under the label CROPS. The message was simple. Keep the foundation firm, but stop treating the application layer as fixed.
Buterin argued that developers should revisit what decentralized apps are supposed to look like now. He called for a bolder and more open mindset inside the Ethereum world, while warning against any drift on basic security assumptions. As one example, he referred to trusted verification with light clients and said experimentation should not come at the cost of core guarantees.
AI could upend wallets and user interfaces fast
A major part of his argument focused on artificial intelligence and how quickly it could alter crypto products. Buterin asked developers to think through a sharp scenario: what if AI makes browser-extension wallets and mobile-extension wallets obsolete within a year? He did not present that as a forecast set in stone. He used it to push builders to redesign user interaction before that kind of disruption hits.
That shifts the discussion away from protocol tweaks alone and toward product architecture. A large share of Ethereum usage today still depends on familiar wallet flows, signatures, and front-end assumptions. If AI changes that interface layer, builders may need to reconsider the entire path users take when they interact onchain.
Privacy and new DeFi structures are part of the reset
Privacy was another central point in his comments. Buterin said Ethereum’s current software stack rarely treats privacy as a priority from the start, which is why he suggested rebuilding large sections of the application stack. In his framing, a radically different Ethereum application stack is worth pursuing. He also pointed to privacy-focused networking research taking place inside and outside the Ethereum Foundation, and mentioned Aya Miyagotchi in that context.
He applied the same thinking to DeFi. Instead of minor design adjustments, Buterin floated a much broader question: what if the rest of DeFi is basically just universal futures markets? He also discussed new oracle designs powered by cryptography and artificial intelligence, along with fresh application models built on decentralized data sources.
Buterin also wants a cultural reset for builders
The post was not limited to code and product design. Buterin addressed culture inside Ethereum’s developer community and referenced the meme community around Milady, treating it as symbolic rather than political. His advice to builders was blunt: “rip off the suit and tie.” The point was not fashion. It was a push against rigid expectations that can narrow creative work.
He urged developers to imagine Ethereum as if it were starting again from zero. In that frame, new thinking could open stronger applications across DeFi, identity, and decentralized social networks. His line of argument stays consistent throughout: defend the base layer, rethink almost everything built on top of it.