Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has once again raised a critical long-term concern: protocol complexity. According to Buterin, Ethereum’s ability to remain truly decentralized, trustless, and capable of passing the so-called “walkaway test” depends directly on how simple its core protocol remains over time.
In his view, decentralization is not only about having many validators or strong fault tolerance. A protocol can appear decentralized on the surface, yet still fail its core mission if it becomes so complex that only a small group of experts can fully understand, maintain, or verify it.
Buterin warns that a bloated protocol — with hundreds of thousands of lines of code and multiple layers of advanced cryptography — introduces systemic risk. In such a scenario, users are no longer able to independently verify the system. Instead, they are forced to trust specialized developers, undermining the very foundation of a trustless network.
This problem becomes even more severe when considering Ethereum’s long-term survivability. If existing client teams were to step away, a highly complex protocol would make it extremely difficult for new teams to step in. Even highly skilled engineers might struggle to fully audit or reimplement the system from scratch.
Vitalik also cautions against Ethereum becoming overly focused on short-term feature expansion. Rapidly adding functionality to meet immediate market demands may feel productive, but over time it risks inflating the protocol and compromising its long-term resilience. For a system intended to last decades — or even centuries — complexity can become a permanent burden.
To address this, Buterin advocates for a clear and intentional “simplification and cleanup” process within Ethereum’s development roadmap. This includes reducing total lines of code, limiting reliance on overly complex components, and strengthening core invariants that make client implementations easier to build and verify.
He points to past improvements such as transaction gas limits and the removal of selfdestruct as examples of changes that reduced complexity while improving security and scalability.
Looking ahead, Buterin supports the idea of downgrading rarely used or overly complex features from the base protocol, moving them into smart contracts instead. He also remains open to more radical long-term changes, including a potential transition from the EVM to a simpler virtual machine architecture such as RISC-V.
Ultimately, Vitalik expects Ethereum’s pace of change to slow over time. He views the first 15 years as an experimental maturation phase. Once Ethereum reaches true protocol adulthood, components that no longer provide clear value should not become permanent baggage.
The message is clear: Ethereum’s future depends not on adding more, but on carefully choosing what to keep.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and reflects a personal perspective. It is not investment advice. Always conduct your own research before making any financial decisions.
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