As the blockchain expands, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wants developers to pause and think: What kind of world are we building? In a recent post on Warpcast.
Buterin clarified that what matters most now isn’t only Ethereum’s infrastructure but the apps developers build on it. Vitalik Buterin says the apps built on Ethereum need to have a “good social philosophy.”
What Does That Mean?
Vitalik Buterin believes the application layer—where developers build tools and services on Ethereum—significantly impacts people’s lives. Decisions about user privacy, fairness, decentralization, and even ethics come into play here.
⚡️ NEW: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argues that Ethereum’s app layer needs “good social philosophy” most, not its infrastructure.
On Warpcast, he cited Railgun and Polymarket as positive examples while identifying Pumpdotfun and FTX as having bad social philosophy. pic.twitter.com/vfNqKskFsg
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 14, 2025
“Apps are 80% special purpose,” he said. “What apps you build depends on your ideas of what Ethereum apps are there to do for the world.” So, it’s not enough to build cool tech. Developers need to ask themselves, Why are we building this? Who benefits? That’s where social philosophy comes in.
Apps That Get It Right—and Those That Don’t
Vitalik pointed to a few projects he feels reflect a good social philosophy:
- Railgun (a privacy-focused protocol)
- Polymarket (a decentralized prediction market)
- Farcaster (a Web3 social app)
- Signal (the popular encrypted messenger)
According to Buterin, the applications automatically maintain proper operations in the background. They focus on user privacy, decentralization, and meaningful use cases. Some applications fail to achieve their objectives despite their design goals.
ICYMI: VITALIK BUTERIN VIEWS PUMPFUN’S SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY NEGATIVELY pic.twitter.com/gwJao0yiMr
— DEGEN NEWS (@DegenerateNews) April 13, 2025
He called out projects like Pump.fun (a memecoin platform), FTX (the infamous collapsed exchange), and Terra/LUNA as examples of poor social philosophy. Their failures, he said, reflect misguided intentions or reckless behavior from the people who built them.
Infrastructure vs. Intentions
Interestingly, Vitalik Buterin also compared Ethereum’s infrastructure to something like the programming language C++. Even if someone with questionable beliefs had invented C++, it wouldn’t change the language much—it’s just a tool.
But Ethereum, he says, isn’t only a tool. Its move to proof-of-stake, support for light clients, and account abstraction are all signs of the values it has put into the tech.
Source: Warpcast
Conclusion
To Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s future is shaped by its code and the intentions of the people building on it. The successful implementation of technology depends on more than just its quality. We also need good utility.
Disclaimer
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Luz Mayoral