Ethereum Buterin Refuses to ‘Let Ethereum Die’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has pushed back against suggestions that the original Ethereum blockchain should be left to wither away in favor of a new, from-scratch network.

Instead, Buterin has unveiled a highly ambitious strategy to rebuild the network from the inside out with the help of radical upgrades while keeping the existing system fully operational.

An X user has argued that Buterin should allow the current iteration of Ethereum to “die a slow and painful death by fragmentation” with a highly sophisticated web of layer-2 rollups (L2s), app chains, and institutional involvement. 

The user claimed that Buterin should start over and rebuild a purely “cypherpunk chain” from first principles using RISC-V architecture just to “show who was the boss.”

The bolt-on strategy 

Buterin swiftly rejected the idea of abandoning the network. In his response, he outlined an ambitious plan to transform the network. 

Buterin envisions creating a “cypherpunk principled non-ugly Ethereum” as a tightly integrated “bolt-on” to the present-day system. 

The goal is to grow this new infrastructure alongside the current chain while aggressively injecting core cypherpunk principles into Ethereum’s base layer.

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Buterin compared Ethereum’s ongoing evolution to replacing parts of an airplane while it is still flying. “Ethereum has already made jet engine changes in-flight once,” Buterin stated. “We can do it ~4 times more!”

AI acceleration 

The ambitious transformation could be achieved within five years, according to Buterin.  

Interestingly, Buterin noted that this timeline could be drastically shortened “with AI coding and verification.” 

“Then, in 5 years (or maybe way sooner with AI coding and verification, who knows), we have an open pathway to turn the existing system into smart contracts written in the language of the new system if/when we want,” he said.