Vitalik Buterin: Crypto Must Build Wealth — Not Reckless Leverage Bets
$ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged the crypto industry to rethink its priorities, calling on developers to build privacy-preserving, wealth-building financial tools instead of promoting high-risk leverage and extractive platforms.
🧠 Sovereignty Over Speculation
In a post on Farcaster, Buterin distinguished between the “open web” and the “sovereign web,” crediting Bitcoin maximalists for recognizing this divide early. He argued that resistance to ICOs and arbitrary tokens was rooted in protecting user sovereignty from what he calls “corposlop.”
⚠️ Corposlop, according to Buterin, refers to corporate-driven platforms that maximize profit through dopamine-triggering algorithms, data exploitation, and short-term engagement—often at the expense of user autonomy.
🔐 From State Control to Corporate Manipulation
Buterin explained that while early crypto focused on escaping government overreach, today’s challenge lies in resisting corporate extraction and behavioral manipulation. True sovereignty, he said, now requires strong cryptography, digital privacy, and systems that defend users from attention- and data-harvesting models.
💰 Build Wealth, Not Addiction
He called for crypto applications that:
✔ Grow wealth without 50x leverage
✔ Avoid betting-style mechanics
✔ Protect user data by default
✔ Support local-first, privacy-preserving design
He also warned against chasing trends or “the meta,” urging builders to create with conviction rather than conformity.
🤖 AI, DAOs & Digital Independence
Buterin extended his critique to AI and DAOs, advocating for open, privacy-friendly AI that enhances human capability—not replaces it. For DAOs, he suggested privacy-preserving governance to avoid capture by powerful interest groups.
🔥 A Call to Action
“Be sovereign. Reject corposlop and believe in somETHing,” Buterin declared—framing crypto’s future as both a technical mission and a philosophical stand.
