Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum will systematically correct the regression in self-sovereignty and trustlessness over the past decade by 2026.

In a post, Vitalik Buterin stated that in 2026, Ethereum will systematically correct the regression in self-sovereignty and trustlessness that has occurred over the past decade. Key areas of focus include: lowering the barrier to entry for full nodes using ZK-EVM and BAL; verifying the authenticity of RPC return data through Helios; enabling privacy queries on RPCs using ORAM and PIR; promoting social recovery wallets and time locks to reduce the risk of private key leaks; achieving privacy payments consistent with regular transfers; enhancing privacy and censorship resistance under ERC-4337, future native account abstractions, and FOCIL; and promoting on-chain application UIs based on IPFS to reduce reliance on centralized servers. Vitalik pointed out that node operation, wallets, and block building have been significantly centralized, but "this will no longer be the case in 2026." Ethereum will gradually withdraw the value compromises made to cater to mainstream adoption and rebuild a "world computer" without single points of failure and without a central controller.