Complex code with thousands of lines and exotic cryptography fails "trustlessness," the "walkaway test," and "self-sovereignty." You might have millions of nodes verifying everything, but if only experts grasp the guts, everyday users still depend on developers. Self-sovereignty means anyone can truly own and run their node without blind faith.
Why Complexity Kills Crypto’s Promise
Vitalik Buterin fears Ethereum bloating from feature creep. Short-term wins like niche cryptography add functionality fast, but they erode long-term resilience. Trustlessness vanishes when users lean on "high priests" decoding PhD-level math. The walkaway test flops if new teams cannot maintain abandoned code. Self-sovereignty slips away for non-experts unable to audit protocols.
He pushes three simplification metrics. First, shrink code to fit a few pages; less code means fewer bugs. Second, ditch complex dependencies—stick to basic hashes over lattices or isogenies (advanced math few understand). Third, lock in invariants, core rules like gas limits simplifying client work. Ethereum’s EIP-6780 killed selfdestruct, capping storage changes per block.
An important, and perenially underrated, aspect of “trustlessness”, “passing the walkaway test” and “self-sovereignty” is protocol simplicity.
Even if a protocol is super decentralized with hundreds of thousands of nodes, and it has 49% byzantine fault tolerance, and nodes fully… pic.twitter.com/kvzkg11M3c
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 18, 2026
Garbage collection fights bloat. Piecemeal tweaks streamlined gas costs in Glamsterdam, tying fees to real resources. Big sweeps swapped proof-of-work for proof-of-stake. Future "Lean consensus" could scrap mistakes wholesale. Rosetta-style compatibility demotes old features to smart contracts, freeing new clients. Swap EVM for RISC-V? Old code runs as contracts.
Buterin eyes Ethereum’s first 15 years as adolescence, wild experimentation yielding gems and junk. Protocols must slow evolution, shedding dead weight for a "hundred-year hyperstructure" outlasting empires. Complexity invites exploits; simplicity endures.
More About Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin urges building better DAOs to overcome current flaws in crypto governance. Ethereum envisioned DAOs as superior, code-driven alternatives to corporations and governments, but today’s token-voting treasuries prove inefficient, prone to whale capture, and politically weak. Still, DAOs remain essential for better oracles (fixing stablecoin vulnerabilities), onchain disputes, trusted lists, quick projects, and long-term maintenance. He contrasts "concave" problems needing consensus against attacks with "convex" ones favoring decisive leaders under checks.
We need more DAOs – but different and better DAOs.
The original drive to build Ethereum was heavily inspired by decentralized autonomous organizations: systems of code and rules that lived on decentralized networks that could manage resources and direct activity, more…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 19, 2026
Solutions lie in ZK privacy, AI to combat decision fatigue (user-controlled, not takeover), and advanced forums like Pol.is. Examples like MakerDAO’s whale issues highlight needs; trends show $15B DAO treasuries but poor turnout. New designs must prioritize oracles and communication equally. This ensures Ethereum’s robust base layer extends upward, creating enduring decentralization.