Vitalik Buterin
@vitalik.eth
I actually think the growth of app layer is exactly the time that good social philosophy is needed *most*. Analogy: imagine that C++ had been made by a totalitarian racist fascist. Would it be a worse language? Probably not. C++ is general purpose, there isn't much surface for bad social philosophy to wreck it (or good social philosophy to improve it). Ethereum L1 is not quite in that position: someone who doesn't believe in decentralization would not add light clients, or FOCIL, or (good forms of) account abstraction; someone who doesn't mind energy waste would not spend half a decade moving to PoS... But the EVM opcodes might have been roughly the same either way. So Ethereum is perhaps 50% general-purpose. Apps are ~80% special purpose. What apps you build depends heavily on what ideas you have of what ethereum apps (and ethereum as a whole) are there to do for the world. And so having good ideas on this topic out there becomes crucially important. https://x.com/owocki/status/1911160442728419681
16 replies
63 recasts
298 reactions
ELsebasha.eth
@elsebasha
Vitalik, Your words reminded me that apps are no longer just functional tools — they’ve become philosophical mirrors of what we believe society should become. As Ethereum infrastructure matures, the apps we build don’t just reflect UX priorities or decentralization principles. They express values, worldviews, and the choices we make about what freedom, trust, and identity should look like. In that sense, maybe app developers are not just engineers — but designers of the ethical architectures of tomorrow. What you’re pointing to is powerful: that code carries intent, and applications are how those intentions meet the world. Thank you for reminding us: Even in the most abstract system, philosophy finds its voice. ㅡ 😇ELsebasha
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction