GOD V FINALLY LET GO. ETH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCT OF THE ETHER HOUSE

Editor: In the early hours of May 25th, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of the Taifung, published a long article in X. In the paper, Vitalik has re-explained its personal vision of the future development of the ETA and the role-function planning of EF。

Vitalik emphasizes that the ETA should not bow to the mainstream trend, but must be impressive, and that the values of censorship, openness, privacy, security and CROPS need to be implemented. Vitalik also explicitly mentioned that “the product of the highest value of the Taifeng is ETH” and exceptionally disclosed that nearly 90% of the net assets of the individual were ETH。

Here is the original Vitalik, compiled by the Daily Odaily Planet。

I WANT TO SHARE MY PERSONAL VIEWS ON THE FUTURE DIRECTION OF THE ETHERWOOD FOUNDATION。

First of all, it's just my personal point of view. I am not alone on the board, nor do I have more special powers on the board than other directors. Aya Miyaguchi is leading many of the implementation of this transition, and I am mainly involved in input on technical issues. And the board is expanding, and my influence within the organization will continue to decline in the future -- frankly, that's what I want to see。

DURING THIS PERIOD OF 2025, EF HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN ITS IMPLEMENTATION CAPACITY. MANY OF THE PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN SOLVED, AND UNTIL NOW EF HAS CONTINUED TO BENEFIT FROM MORE EFFICIENT AND TARGETED WAYS OF WORKING. WHEN THESE PROBLEMS ARE GRADUALLY RESOLVEDAround the beginning of this year, I realized that another thing that made me so concerned had become the biggest legacy。

I've often seen words like this: "Vitalik is always talking about the idea that the Ether House should be decentralized, should protect privacy, should be a sanctuary technology, but why is it that the EF's actual actions do not reflect these ideas?"

OF COURSE, THE VOICES YOU HEAR MAY BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. YOU MAY NOT FEEL ANY CRISIS AT ALL, OR EVEN HEAR PEOPLE SAY THAT WE ARE FINALLY TAKING IMPLEMENTATION AND BUSINESS OUTREACH SERIOUSLY. OUR MAIN TASK NOW IS TO MAINTAIN THAT MOMENTUM AND TO DO BETTER AND FASTER。

If that's true, it's probably the real difference between you and me -- the kind of criticism that I value most, and the kind of criticism that most stings me。

An analogy to Google

I would like to illustrate an example in another area。

With regard to Google, one of the beliefs you can hold is that it is a success story that brings great well-being to humankind in organizing global information; but you can also hold another belief: They had a good and idealistic beginning, but they were gradually corrupted by the mainstream business culture, slowly and step by step completely rejecting the slogan “Don't be evil”。

My personal perspective on Google may be in between. But if you could take me back around 2008 and give me a button, it would make Google ideologically one or two different standards (e.g. give Richard Stallman permanent veto over certain key policies), I would not hesitate to press it。

Why? Because the choice of a company is not just that of the company, it affects the entire national system and even the world. Google was and is in the context of a general departure from early idealism and “no evil” in the entire technology industry. The foundation, in turn, leads to greed for economic gain, a comprehensive vision of accelerated super-intellectual intelligence, penetration by anti-social personalities, and subjugation (or, worse, active participation) of ideological control, surveillance and war pressure imposed on Governments。

SoIf “one company” can go the other way, becoming what George Bernard Shaw calls “Unreasible Man” to resist the trend of the times, then such a presence is more conducive to freedom, balance of power, and stability of society as a whole than all large companies are to the mainstream。

This is part of my understanding of “pluralism”. It's not just my own idea, but it's also not far from what Aya and others think when they set the framework for the EF mission。

What does this mean for the Etherwood Foundation

SO, WHAT DOES ALL THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE ROLE OF THE EF

EF IS NOT THE “CENTRE OF THE ETHERS”, BUT RATHER, EF IS “A NODE WITH OTHER NODES WITH CLEARLY DEFINED FUNCTIONS”. WE'VE BEEN SAYING THAT EF SHOULD BE THE LATTER, BUT MANY PEOPLE IN THE EF ECOSYSTEM WANT US TO BE THE FORMER. NOW WE ARE TAKING ACTION TO ENSURE THAT WE BECOME THE LATTER。

THIS IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE EF ITSELF IS AN ORGANIZATION WITH LIMITED RESOURCES AND LIMITED ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY。EF CURRENTLY HOLDS ONLY ABOUT 0.16 PER CENT OF ETH (EVEN FEWER THAN MANY INDIVIDUAL ETH HOLDERS), WHILE THE “CENTRE FOUNDATION” OF MANY OTHER BLOCK CHAINS USUALLY HOLDS BETWEEN 10 AND 50 PER CENT。Financially, EF was originally designed to fulfil the limited scope of work defined in token distribution files and other pre-line materials (development of chain software; passage of Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, Serenity), which was fully completed in 2022。

EF WAS NOT DESIGNED TO BE AN ETERNAL BUTLER. THEREFORE, TODAY'S EF CHOOSES TO SPEND ITS REMAINING RESOURCES IN PURSUIT OF “PERMANENT EXISTENCE” RATHER THAN “INFINITE EXPANSION” (YES, WHICH MEANS THAT WE WILL SELL LESS ETH)。

EF FOCUSES SPECIFICALLY ON WHAT IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE ETA AS AN ANTI-CENSORSHIP, OPEN, PRIVACY AND SECURITY SYSTEM (I.E. CROPS DIMENSIONS) AND NOBODY WILL DO IT IF THEY DO NOT. THIS MEANS MAKING DIFFICULT CHOICES AND, IN SOME CASES, EVEN THOSE WE HIGHLY APPRECIATE AND RESPECT, MOVING BEYOND THE EF. INDEED, IF WE WANT IMPORTANT TASKS TO ATTRACT EXTERNAL CAPITAL, IT IS NECESSARY THAT PEOPLE WITH HIGH LEVELS OF TECHNICAL COMPETENCE, PUBLIC REPUTATION, EVEN OUTSIDE THE EF, WHO HAVE A HIGH DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THEIR MISSION AND CROPS VALUES。

IT ALSO MEANS THAT THE EF WILL TAKE A CLEAR CULTURAL STAND. ALL OF THIS IS NOT TO BE OPPOSED TO THE REST OF THE ETA, BUT RATHER TO BE SYNERGETIC. WE KNOW THAT MANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE ETA WORLD ALSO HIGHLY SHARE CROPS AND RELATED VALUES, BUT “HIGHLY” IS NOT THE SAME AS “CHOICE TO SPECIALIZED AND FULLY ENGAGE IN A FIELD”. TO TAKE ANOTHER EXAMPLE, I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO REDUCE ANIMAL ABUSE, AND I LIKE PURE FOOD, BUT I AM NOT A COMPLETE PURITANIST MYSELF。

EF IS STILL IN TRANSITION, AND WE EXPECT ITS NEW LONG-TERM SHAPE TO STABILIZE IN THE COMING MONTHS. WHAT ARE THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THIS NEW FORM

Again, I am alone, but I can give my answer from a technical point of view (and, of course, a crucial non-technical dimension)。

Technical core: Etherwood must be amazing

the core is that the ether house must be amazing。WE LIVE IN AN ERA OF HIGHLY INTELLIGENT AI AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES THAT ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT. AN EVM SYSTEM, ONE OR TWO HARD CROSSES PER YEAR TO OPTIMIZE SHORT-TERM USER NEEDS, IS UNATTRACTIVE。

FOR SOME PEOPLE, "SURPRISING" MEANS 250 MILLISECONDS OF DELAY AND 1 MILLION TPS. I THINK IT'S A MISTAKE TO TRY TO GO THIS WAY。The pursuit of the fastest possible expansion, while only a little more central than other public chains, is a road to mediocrity, and we will lose if we try to do so。

I THINK THE ETA SHOULD BE EXPANDED, BUT I THINK THE ETA SHOULD DO ITS BEST IN ANOTHER DIMENSION, MAKING IT VERY CONVINCING -- THE CROPS DIMENSION。This includes the following specific objectives。

One is to build an Ether factory that can prove to be without loopholes。Until about six months ago, all cyber security researchers would have thought it was an absurd and impossible goal. Now, thanks to AI-assisted formalization, this is already on the verge of being achieved. We should therefore be at the forefront of moving this forward。

Second, there is a chain consensus to achieve high availability。It was, and will continue to be, the only chain with the following characteristics: (i) properties with the traditional BFT style, which can guarantee security even when facing a high level of tolerance in a different environment; and (ii) attributes with the bitcoin PoW style, which can withstand up to 49% of the attackers in a synchronized environment。

As far as I know, there is no other chain literally that has this or is planning for it. Bitcoin only pursues (ii), while most other chains only pursue (i). Some may recall that I had been very insistent on this — and I “obstinately” believe that the Taifeng cannot rely on social consensus and hard fork to deal with 34 per cent of nodes offline. It doesn't matter for chains like Hyperledger, BNB, Solana, Tempo. But it's not acceptable for bitcoin, Etherwood or Zcash。

The third is “Minimumization of Intermediaries” (Intermediary Representation)Minimize the middle class. In fact, now that smart contract wallets, agreements like Railgun, have to be brokered to send transactions in order to be included in the chain, this is actually an awkward thing and remains a source of systemic vulnerability。

That is why we are moving forward with FOCIL, EIP-8141 (and 7701 and related work over the years) with the goal of establishing a truly universal mechanism for sending transactions that minimizes reliance on intermediaries, with the attributes of open mempool and strong inclusion. This applies not only to secp256r1, but also to privacy agreements and more scenes。

Kohaku is also promoting “de-brokering” at the user level to keep Etheleum away from today’s anti-Utopian state of affairs – a wallet that does not even validate the chain itself, sending our private data to a dozen third-party servers – and moving towards a future that is more in line with the CROPS concept。

Some of the above three goals appear to be "unrational" -- maybe the Ether Workshop is only 50%, and it's "good" -- for example, if we rely on an intermediary, but how easy is it to switch it? ButJUST 50% DOESN'T MAKE ETHER'S JOURNEY "DEEPLY CONVINCING." SO WE'RE GOING TO PURSUE 100%。

Fortunately, all of these goals are compatible with high TPS, which is also a major focus of research (especially on state expansion). Well-designed L2 can also help, especially L2 (e.g., high frequency transactions, privacy, etc.), which optimizes specific applications. Thanks to Raul's work on de-coded P2P and many other optimizations, these goals can even be compatible with the significantly reduced Slot Time。

Looking ahead

FROM A FINANCIAL POINT OF VIEW, THE “PRODUCT” WITH THE HIGHEST VALUE OF THE TAIFONG BLOCK CHAIN IS THE ASSET ETH。IT PROTECTS $25 BILLION WORTH OF ETH. AND I'M TALKING ABOUT THE EDIFICE, WHICH IS ACTUALLY VERY GOOD FOR THE VALUE OF ETH AS AN ASSET。

NEARLY 90 PER CENT OF MY PERSONAL NET ASSETS ARE ETH, AND THE REST ARE MOSTLY ABOUT $40 MILLION IN CHAINED FRENCH CURRENCY, EACH OF WHICH HAS BEEN ALLOCATED TO SOME OPEN-SOURCE BIOTECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE PROJECTS。

AT THE SAME TIME, HOWEVER, THERE ARE SOME TASKS NECESSARY TO SUPPORT THE VALUE OF ETH ASSETS - WHICH ARE NOT PART OF THE EF MANDATE. THIS IS WHEN WE NEED OTHER "HEROES" TO COME FORWARD. EF HAS ALSO RECENTLY BEGUN TO THINK MORE ABOUT HOW TO ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH THESE ORGANIZATIONS AND GIVE THEM THE NECESSARY INITIAL SUPPORT。

THE FUTURE OF THE EF WOULD BE MORE LIKE A “SHIP” THAN IN THE PAST FEW YEARS. IT WOULD BE MORE OF A POSITION, AND SOME POSITIONS MIGHT EVEN BE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, BUT IT WOULD ALSO BE LONGER AND BETTER SUITED TO ENSURE THAT THE TAIFENG TRULY BROUGHT SOMETHING MEANINGFUL TO THE WORLD。

WE THANK ALL THOSE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE EF WHO HELPED DRIVE ALL THIS。