Vitalik Buterin

Cofounder, Ethereum

Search every verified Vitalik Buterin interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Vitalik Buterin has been promoting the concept of the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ), which he described as a rethinking of layer-2 networks to achieve greater integration with Ethereum at lower cost. He stated that the EEZ allows chains to use Ethereum as an "ultimate economic operating system for the internet." Buterin also discussed the convergence of AI and crypto, arguing that Ethereum should serve as a public data layer and on-chain computation layer for multi-party coordination, rather than a traditional operating system. He emphasized the importance of CROPS (Censorship Resistant, Open Source, Private, Secure) AI, advocating for local models and privacy-preserving techniques such as ZK payments to protect user data when interacting with remote AI services. Buterin has also reflected on the evolution of his own philosophy, describing a shift from "autopilot" to active decision-making and a deeper understanding of crypto's role in preserving human agency. He contrasted the vision of safety offered by centralized powers with the decentralized, empowering safety he believes crypto can provide, stating that "crypto does not have the ability to fix the dollar" but can create alternatives that individuals are free to use. On the Ethereum protocol roadmap, Buterin outlined priorities including quantum safety, account abstraction via EIP-8141, and improvements to block building and privacy, with the goal of making Ethereum maximally robust and easy to verify.