Ethereum Founder Says Original Web3 Vision Is Now Achievable
- Ethereum co-founder says scaling upgrades now make the original Web3 vision practical.
- Vitalik Buterin highlights Fileverse as evidence that decentralized apps can meet daily user needs.
- The decentralization renaissance depends on apps surviving without their original developers.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has renewed attention on the original Web3 goal of building permissionless decentralized applications. On January 14, he published a post on X that revisited Ethereum’s 2014 plan for a broader alternative web built on open protocols. He also argued that the supporting technology stack has matured enough for the daily-use of decentralized applications.
2014 Blueprint
Buterin described a 2014 vision that grouped several technologies into one coherent platform for decentralized software. He framed Ethereum as the “world computer” that gives applications shared state and programmable accounts. He also pointed to messaging and storage layers that can handle tasks a blockchain cannot handle efficiently.
In that design, Whisper served as a data layer for messages that do not need consensus, while Swarm targeted long-term file access. Buterin said Whisper has since evolved into Waku, which now supports applications such as Status and Railway.
He also referenced IPFS as a reliable way to retrieve content, while noting that retrieval alone does not guarantee durable storage. He said that gap still leaves room for better storage solutions.
Ethereum Scaling Progress
Buterin used the post to connect Ethereum’s current roadmap to early scaling promises. He cited Ethereum’s move to proof of stake and said the network now uses less energy than in the proof-of-work era. He also said the ecosystem has lowered typical user costs, and he argued that upcoming work can push costs down further.
He highlighted zero-knowledge EVM systems and PeerDAS as key tools for scaling. In his framing, those components help realize the earlier “sharding” goal by expanding data availability and supporting more transactions at lower cost.
He also pointed to Layer 2 networks as another scaling path that can improve throughput and confirmation speed for specific applications. He said L2s can add speed gains on top of core protocol upgrades.
Related: Vitalik Buterin Wants Ethereum to Survive Without Him
User Control and The “Walkaway Test”
Buterin cited Fileverse, a decentralized documents product, as an example of how teams can assemble the stack into a usable service. He said the app uses Ethereum and Gnosis Chain for names, accounts, and permissions, while it relies on decentralized messaging and file storage to sync document changes. He also said the project has improved usability enough that he now uses it for writing and collaboration.
He emphasized what he called the “walkaway test,” which measures whether users can keep access to data and continue using a tool even if the original developers stop maintaining it. He linked that test to open-source recovery tools that aim to let users retrieve and edit documents without depending on a single company. He contrasted this with products that require recurring subscriptions or centralized logins. He argued that users should “buy” digital tools once and retain control.
Buterin’s message linked the 2014 vision to a practical benchmark for new decentralized applications. He said early dApps felt like toys and demanded far more effort than Web2 services. He said today’s stack reduces that gap, especially for collaboration tools. His post positioned durability, permissionless access, and data portability as core requirements for the next wave of Web3 products in the market.
