Vitalik Buterin Urges Shift to Decentralized Apps, Criticizes Centralized Services

Vitalik Buterin announced that the technical foundations for Web3 are now in place. He emphasized a shift from speculation to building decentralized applications that safeguard user rights.

The Ethereum co-founder highlighted the resolution of scaling and privacy issues, crediting zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVMs) and Layer-2 solutions as pivotal developments.
He criticized centralized services as "corposlop" and advocated for creating software tools or "hammers" that users own permanently, without surveillance or remote disabling.
Buterin cited Waku, a privacy-centric messaging layer, and Fileverse, a decentralized workspace, as examples of functional protocols. Fileverse passes the "walkaway test," ensuring usability even if developers exit.

Market data on Jan. 14 indicated that Ethereum traded at $3,284, a decline of 1.96% from its daily high. The trading volume increased by 66.9% to $36.36 billion. Ethereum represents 11% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization, valued at $3.3 trillion.

5-day chart with EMA and RSI indicators showcasing an oversold status for ETH | Source: Trading View