Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to abandon centralized social media in 2026

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced plans to make a full comeback to decentralized social in 2026, adding that a better society needs better mass communication tools. Buterin emphasized that the mass communication tools needed should serve the users’ long-term interest, not maximize short-term engagement. 

According to Buterin, there is no simple trick that solves these problems, but more competition is one important place to start. He noted that decentralization is the way to enable this, because a shared data layer allows anyone to build their own client on top of it.

Meanwhile, the Ethereum co-founder claimed that he has been back to decentralized social since the beginning of the year. Buterin disclosed that every post he made or read this year was on firefly.social.

The multi-client platform covers reading and posting to X, Bluesky, Farcaster, and Lens. However, Buterin pointed out that his activities on Bluesky are limited because the platform has a 300-character cap, which is not suitable for his long rants. 

Buterin plans to post more on Lens this year

The Ethereum co-founder unveiled plans to post more on Lens this year, urging everyone to spend more time on Lens, Farcaster, and the broader decentralized social world.

According to Buterin, the crypto industry needs to move beyond everyone constantly tweeting inside a single global information war zone. He believes that Lens is a reopened frontier, where new and better forms of interactions become possible.

Buterin also noted that the Aave team has been doing a great job of stewarding Lens to this point. He also mentioned that he is curious to see what will happen to Lens over the next year.

The Ethereum executive believes that the incoming Aave team comprises people who are actually interested in the “social”. He noted that the team was trying to figure out how to post encrypted tweets way before the decentralized social space even existed. 

Buterin also emphasizes that decentralized social networks should be run by people who strongly believe in the social aspect and are first and foremost motivated to solve the social problem. He says that it is not “Hayekian info-utopia,” but “corposlop.”

Buterin explains corposlop and building a sovereign web  

Earlier this month, Buterin explained that corposlop involves social media that maximizes outrage, dopamine, and other short-term engagement tactics at the expense of long-term value and fulfillment. He also noted that corposlop involves unnecessary mass data collection from users, often followed by careless or even casual management, or even its sale to third parties. Essentially, corposlop is a soulless, trend-following homogeneity that is both lame and evil. 

Meanwhile, corposlop combines corporate optimization power and an aura of company respectability that comes with polished branding. It also includes the exact opposite of respectable behavior because that is what is needed to maximize profit.

Buterin agrees with around 60% of these claims, but feels that a distinction between the Sovereign Web and the open web is essential. 

According to Buterin, Bitcoin maximalists understood this early and resisted ICOs, tokens beyond Bitcoin, and arbitrary financial applications to keep the network sovereign. Their fear of corposlop was real, but their methods sometimes restricted users. 

On the other hand, Buterin claimed that the Sovereign Web includes privacy-preserving, local-first apps. He noted that social media should give users control over content, and financial tools should help grow wealth responsibly. Currently, the concept of sovereignty encompasses fighting against corporate mind control and digital privacy. 

A sovereign web is also concerned with the long-term desires of humans rather than short-term or immediate profits. Meanwhile, digital sovereignty came to mean acting based on values, guarding privacy, and avoiding manipulation.

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