Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is urging developers to confront what he sees as growing protocol bloat, warning that constant upgrades without removing old features are making the network harder to trust, harder to maintain, and harder for users to understand.
Simplicity, not scale, is the real risk
In a post on X, Buterin argued that decentralization metrics alone do not guarantee a healthy protocol. He said trustlessness and self-sovereignty depend just as much on keeping systems simple enough for people to audit and reason about.
He warned that a protocol packed with layers of complex cryptography and sprawling codebases risks becoming something only specialists can explain. In that scenario, users are forced to rely on a small group of experts, undermining the very principles Ethereum was built to protect.
Why backward compatibility is part of the problem
Buterin traced the issue to how upgrades are judged. Changes are often evaluated by how little they disrupt existing systems, which naturally favors adding features instead of removing them.
Over time, that bias creates a heavier, more complicated protocol. To reverse the trend, he proposed an explicit “garbage collection” process aimed at cutting unused code, reducing reliance on exotic cryptography, and introducing more fixed rules that make client behavior easier to predict.
A different vision from Solana’s leadership
Buterin pointed to past cleanups as proof that simplification is possible. The move from proof of work to proof of stake was one major reset. More recent gas cost reforms were designed to replace arbitrary rules with clearer links to real resource use.
Not everyone agrees with slowing down. Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has argued that constant iteration is essential for a blockchain to stay relevant. Buterin, by contrast, says Ethereum should eventually pass a “walkaway test” and be able to run securely for decades with minimal ongoing intervention.