Vitalik Buterin’s Hilarious Take on Ethereum’s App Layer Philosophy!

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In a delightful twist of fate, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has taken to the digital stage, proclaiming that it is not the infrastructure layer of Ethereum that requires a hearty dose of “good social philosophy,” but rather the application layer. One might say it’s akin to suggesting that the butler needs a better sense of humor than the grand estate itself! 😄

Now, the app layer, dear reader, is where developers, those brave souls, construct decentralized applications atop Ethereum’s sturdy foundation. It’s a bit like building a house of cards on a wobbly table—decisions made here can lead to either a splendid success or a catastrophic collapse! 🏗️

In a recent post on the social media platform Warpcast (which sounds like a place where one might find a particularly chatty ghost), Buterin responded to a user’s rather earnest suggestion that Ethereum requires a fresh crop of developers steeped in its core values. But no! Vitalik insists it’s the app layer that’s in dire need of this philosophical refreshment. Who knew philosophy could be so trendy? 🤔

“Apps are 80% special purpose,” he quipped, “What apps you build depends heavily on what ideas you have of what Ethereum apps, and Ethereum as a whole, are there to do for the world. And so having good ideas on this topic out there becomes crucially important.” A bit like deciding whether to serve tea or coffee at a garden party—one must choose wisely! ☕️

In a rather cheeky comparison, Buterin mused that a programming language like C++ might not be as swayed by the creator’s ideology, as it’s a general-purpose tool. “Imagine that C++ had been made by a totalitarian racist fascist. Would it be a worse language? Probably not,” he said, leaving us all to ponder the absurdity of it all. One can only hope the tea is better than the philosophy! 🍵

Ethereum’s layer 1, he argues, is somewhat similar, though it bears the marks of philosophical influence, particularly with its shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) and the support of light clients. “Someone who doesn’t believe in decentralization would not add light clients, or good forms of account abstraction,” he pointed out, as if explaining why one should never wear socks with sandals. 🧦

“Someone who doesn’t mind energy waste would not spend half a decade moving to PoS, but the Ethereum Virtual Machine opcodes might have been roughly the same either way. So Ethereum is perhaps 50% general-purpose,” he added, leaving us all to wonder if he’s been sipping too much of that philosophical tea! ☕️

Apps with Good Social Philosophy vs. Bad

In a follow-up post, Buterin shared his thoughts on apps that embody good social philosophy, naming the crypto privacy protocol Railgun, the Web3 social protocol Farcaster, the decentralized prediction market Polymarket, and the messenger app Signal. “You build apps that do the right thing behind the scenes by default. Signal is a reasonably good example of this, though it has significant flaws of its own. Farcaster is also a good example of this,” he said, sounding rather like a proud parent at a school play. 🎭

On the flip side, he pointed out the memecoin platform Pump.fun, the fallen crypto ecosystem Terra, its native token Terra (LUNA), and the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX as prime examples of bad social philosophy. “The differences in what the app does stem from differences in beliefs in developers’ heads about what they are here to accomplish,” he concluded, as if delivering the final punchline of a rather convoluted joke. 🎤

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2025-04-14 06:23