Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly reversed nearly a decade-old stance, indicating a significant shift in the thinking around blockchain self-governance.
In a recent X (Twitter) post, Buterin stated that he no longer agrees with his 2017 claim that users' full independent validation was an 'odd mountain man's fantasy.'
Why Vitalik Buterin is rethinking the assumptions of Ethereum's self-validation
He explained that this statement reflects both advancements in cryptography and lessons learned from real-world network issues.
In 2017, Buterin had a discussion with blockchain theorist Ian Grigg about whether blockchains should commit to storing state on-chain. Grigg suggested that blockchains could only record the transaction order without maintaining user balances, smart contract code, or storage space.
Buterin opposed this approach and warned that users should either replay the entire history of the chain or fully trust external RPC service providers. At that time, the Ethereum leader's stance was that neither option was practical for the average participant.
At that time, he emphasized that Ethereum's commitment to recording state on-chain and verifying values with Merkle proofs made trusting the network significantly safer than relying on a single service provider.
A significant change has been the rise of ZK-SNARKs technology. This cryptographic advancement allows for the verification of the blockchain's correctness without re-executing every transaction.
Buterin compares the development to a situation where "a pill is found that cures all diseases for 15 dollars" — a breakthrough that brings security without unreasonable costs.
Thanks to this innovation, Ethereum can now rethink previously unavoidable compromises regarding scalability, verifiability, and decentralization.
Mountain Man option: Ethereum's security villa for a decentralized future
Buterin also highlighted the importance of real-world reliability.
"Sometimes the P2P network goes down. Sometimes the latency increases twentyfold. Sometimes a trusted service is shut down. Sometimes miners or stakers consolidate power and intermediaries censor applications," he wrote.
In such situations, users must retain the ability to verify and use the chain directly without "developer assistance." This ensures self-governance even when assumptions fail.
This principle is the basis of his new "Mountain Man" option defense. Full self-verification is not intended as a daily routine, but it serves as a critical backup system and a kind of negotiating leverage, a safe haven for Ethereum.
Just as BitTorrent forced streaming services to offer better terms to consumers, the "Mountain Man's cabin" gives Ethereum users negotiating power and security amidst technological and political uncertainty.
Buterin's change in thinking is both technical and philosophical. ZK-SNARKs remove previous barriers to self-verification, and practical experience has shown that centralization, network issues, and censorship are real risks.
Holding onto the "Mountain Man" option helps Ethereum maintain the network's long-term reliability and self-governing ethos.
Buterin's stance change shows that the assumptions that guided design at the time are no longer valid, and strong fallback solutions are necessary to ensure a decentralized future.
