Vitalik Buterin Urges Ethereum Devs to Build With Values in Mind

He believes that the application layer—not the core infrastructure—is where thoughtful ideas and social responsibility matter most.

His comments came in a post on Warpcast on April 12. He responded to a user who said Ethereum needs a new wave of builders who understand and care about the project’s original values. Buterin agreed in part, but added that it was the app layer where those values are most needed.

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Buterin compared Ethereum to a programming language. A tool like C++, he said, works pretty much the same no matter who created it or what they believed.

However, Ethereum still reflects the choices made by its creators even though the base layer is partly neutral. Buterin pointed to Ethereum’s shift to Proof-of-Stake and support for light clients as examples. These changes were driven by certain beliefs, like wanting to save energy and support decentralization.

Still, the biggest influence of values shows up in apps. Buterin gave a few examples of projects he thinks are built with the right mindset, such as privacy app Railgun, Web3 platform Farcaster, prediction market Polymarket, and messaging tool Signal.

Recently, a clip of Buterin meowing at a robot has stirred mixed reactions among the crypto community on X. What did they say? Read the full story.