Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has known as on crypto builders to refocus on constructing instruments that improve particular person sovereignty fairly than encourage extraction and reckless monetary habits.
In a Farcaster put up responding to Monad KOL Tom Kruise, Buterin distinguished between “the open net” and “the sovereign net,” crediting Bitcoin maximalists for understanding this separation years forward of the broader trade.
Buterin argued that Bitcoin proponents resisted ICOs, various tokens, and arbitrary monetary purposes exactly to protect sovereignty over what he calls “corposlop”, a time period describing platforms optimized for company revenue at customers’ expense.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on Farcaster defining "Corposlop" as a mixture of company optimization, smooth branding, and habits that sacrifices ethics for revenue maximization. Vitalik known as for constructing instruments to help a "Sovereign Net," similar to…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 10, 2026
He urged the trade to construct privacy-preserving purposes, wealth-building instruments with out harmful leverage, and AI techniques that improve fairly than exchange human productiveness.
From Authorities Management to Company Extraction
Buterin traced the evolution of sovereignty from its early 2000s concentrate on avoiding authorities overreach to in the present day’s broader problem of resisting company manipulation.
He defined that trendy sovereignty requires securing digital privateness via cryptography whereas defending in opposition to what he termed “company thoughts warfare” designed to extract consideration and {dollars}.
The Ethereum founder emphasised that sovereignty additionally means pursuing initiatives based mostly on real perception rather than chasing “the meta”, the homogenizing forces that strip away individuality and objective.
He known as for privacy-preserving local-first purposes that decrease knowledge leaks to 3rd events and crypto apps that assist customers develop wealth with out pushing 50x leverage, sports activities betting, or loans for on a regular basis purchases like burritos.
So many are pivoting to launching a prediction market or a launchpad
Actually says one thing concerning the present second when innovation is being changed by a need to capitalize off playing by copy-pasting an current system
That is unhealthy for crypto.— Kate Irwin (@kateirwin) August 27, 2025
Buterin prolonged his critique to AI growth, advocating for maximally open, privacy-friendly instruments that merge human and machine capabilities fairly than encouraging passive reliance on automation.
He challenged DAOs to help organizations pursuing distinctive targets as a substitute of falling captive to the identical influential teams, suggesting privacy-preserving and non-tokenholder-driven voting may assist preserve independence.
The Corposlop Downside Threatening Crypto’s Soul
Buterin outlined corposlop because the poisonous mixture of company optimization energy, smooth branding creating an aura of respectability, and habits that contradicts that respectability in pursuit of most revenue.
He recognized social media platforms as prime examples, criticizing their dopamine-maximizing algorithms that prioritize short-term engagement over long-term worth and achievement.

The critique prolonged to mass knowledge assortment practices adopted by careless administration or outright promoting to 3rd events.
Buterin described corposlop as “soulless trend-following homogeneity that’s each evil and lame,” encompassing merchandise that seem to serve customers whereas truly disempowering them.
He singled out walled gardens like Apple’s ecosystem for stopping cross-platform linking, although he acknowledged the corporate’s privateness emphasis and opinionated long-term imaginative and prescient.
“I’ve many qualms with Apple, however except for their monopolistic practices, they really have many non-corposlop traits,” Buterin wrote, praising their resistance to trend-following whereas urging them to finish monopolistic habits and embrace open supply methods.
Constructing Towards True Digital Independence
Buterin known as on builders and traders to channel power into social media platforms, giving customers management over content material curation whereas interesting to long-term targets fairly than short-term impulses.
“Be sovereign. Reject corposlop and imagine in somETHing,” he declared, framing the problem as each technical and philosophical.
The sovereignty put up follows current writings the place Buterin argued Ethereum should prioritize bandwidth scaling over latency discount as a consequence of bodily and decentralization constraints.
That problem got here as Ethereum achieved technical breakthroughs addressing the blockchain trilemma via zero-knowledge EVMs and PeerDAS expertise, driving 110% progress in new addresses since December’s Fusaka improve.
Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum solved blockchain's trilemma with ZKEVMs and PeerDAS expertise now operating on mainnet after decade-long growth.#Ethereum #Buterinhttps://t.co/cUzlhhO6Xr
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) January 4, 2026
Buterin additionally not too long ago defended Twister Money developer Roman Storm, who faces as much as 5 years in jail after prosecutors framed software program growth as legal conduct.
Storm, co-founder of the privateness protocol, renewed requires public help this week, with Buterin’s intervention highlighting the stakes in preserving crypto’s foundational ideas in opposition to regulatory strain.
The put up Vitalik: Crypto Wants Monetary Instruments That Develop Wealth, Not Reckless Leverage Bets appeared first on Cryptonews.
Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum solved blockchain's trilemma with ZKEVMs and PeerDAS expertise now operating on mainnet after decade-long growth.#Ethereum #Buterinhttps://t.co/cUzlhhO6Xr