Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned this Sunday that the network risks becoming an “unwieldy mess” due to its growing internal complexity. Through a post on X, Buterin demanded an urgent Ethereum protocol simplification to preserve its fundamental values of decentralization and self-sovereignty against code “bloat”.
Buterin argues that Ethereum’s historical development has favored adding features without removing old ones to maintain compatibility. This has resulted in a protocol that becomes heavier, more fragile, and harder to audit for new client teams. Therefore, he proposes an explicit “garbage collection” function focused on reducing total lines of code and minimizing complex cryptographic dependencies. Furthermore, he suggested moving rarely used features out of the core into smart contracts.
Likewise, the importance of this measure lies in the fact that excessive complexity undermines security and raises the entry barrier. According to Buterin, even if a network possesses hundreds of thousands of nodes, it loses its central mission if only a small group of experts can truly understand its advanced cryptography. And the ultimate goal is for Ethereum to pass the “walkaway test”, maintaining its value proposition intact even if active protocol development stops in the future.
Can Ethereum maintain its dominance if it stops its technical evolution to ossify?
On the other hand, this call for Ethereum protocol simplification comes at a contradictory moment of operational success. The network is currently processing close to 2.5 million daily transactions with historically low gas fees of around $0.15. Furthermore, staking dynamics are extremely positive, with a zero validator exit queue. However, Buterin’s vision contrasts sharply with that of Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana co-founder, who publicly rejected the idea of protocol “ossification”, arguing that blockchains must iterate continuously to remain useful.
Finally, the path forward for the leading smart contract cryptocurrency involves a delicate balance between necessary innovation and long-term stability. Buterin insists that before any ossification, essential features such as quantum-resistant cryptography and a scalable architecture based on ZK-EVMs must be implemented. Thus, the debate over code “cleanup” will define Ethereum’s next great phase of technical maturation in the coming years.
