A month ago, my wife invited me to play around with intuitive development (vibe coding) and create a family accounting tool. Since then, I've become obsessed with the feeling of "doing it myself." Whether it's presentation slides or registration pages for in-person courses, I've built everything from scratch using AI. Even last week, when a family member was unexpectedly hospitalized, I created an information dashboard to integrate information from various sources for easier communication.
The more AI I use, the more I understand the significance of blockchain. This also echoes Vitalik Buterin's recent 2026 goal for Ethereum: passing the "walkaway test." Simply put, if the developers "walk away," can users still take their data with them? Let's start with the family accounting tool my wife and I created together.
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▋Family Accounting Tool
My wife is used to recording her monthly personal asset balance on Google Sheets for easy tracking later. I once asked her, "With so many options on the market, why not just use a ready-made expense tracking app?" It turned out that the functions she needed were scattered across different apps; Google Sheets, while the most basic, offered the greatest flexibility. Therefore, our goal was to create an expense tracking service that best suited her needs. Gemini Canvas quickly created a beautiful front-end website for us, but problems soon arose. Every time the website was reopened, all the previously entered data was lost. My task became connecting to the back-end database, storing every entry in Firebase so it could remember the history.
We excitedly shared the expense tracking service with our family, only to discover that without an account system to distinguish users, everyone's expense entries would be mixed up. Fortunately, Firebase's built-in authentication supports various login mechanisms, including username/password or social media login. With the front-end, back-end, and login functionality in place, this family expense tracking service was finally complete.
However, currently, this expense tracking tool heavily relies on a centralized service. If the developer forgets to pay the bill (I'm still far from perfect), or if a user's social media account is revoked, it may become unusable. So I started thinking, how can I ensure this accounting tool can be "set up and forgotten"—even if I suddenly disappear and no one maintains it, my family can still retain their data intact and even continue using it? This is what Vitalik Buterin recently advocated as the "walkaway test."
▋Walkaway Test In the software industry, there's a concept called the Bus Factor. It means, if a team member is unfortunately hit by a bus while walking on the street, will the entire project immediately be paralyzed? If that person happens to be a key figure, having a huge impact on the project, the Bus Factor is 1. The lower the Bus Factor, the more vulnerable the project.
The walkaway test simply changes the object from "people" to "services." If the account is gone, the company goes bankrupt, or the server shuts down, can the product continue to operate? Can users take their data with them? Vitalik Buterin advocates that the ultimate goal of Web3 is to make this factor as high as possible.
My first thought was to add a wallet login (Sign-In with Ethereum) function to the family accounting tool. The wallet address is calculated using a mathematical formula and cannot be unilaterally revoked; as long as the private key remains, it's irrelevant even if a company goes bankrupt. As for the front-end and back-end, the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) or the decentralized hard drive Arweave can be introduced to improve system resilience.
Vitalik also specifically mentioned that his favorite file editor, Fileverse, has passed the "escape test." Even if Fileverse collapses, the application crashes, or the developers disappear, users can still retrieve their files. This is because Fileverse's application runs on Ethereum, data is end-to-end encrypted and stored on IPFS, and wallets serve as user accounts. As long as users properly safeguard their backup keys, they can escape using a pre-planned escape route.
Users can use this recovery website to enter their backup keys to successfully restore all files and download them in PDF or Markdown format. Even without the original application interface, .md files can be re-uploaded to HackMD or Notion for continued editing. Just like a broken escalator can still be used as a staircase.
Some might say that Google Takeout or Notion can also export files as Markdown. These methods rely on the premise that the service is still operational. Exporting data is easy when Google or Notion are running; but if you suddenly remember the file five years after the service shuts down, can you still take it with you? Fileverse can. This is the biggest difference between the two.
No one wants their memories to disappear with the platform, but the question is how to convince entrepreneurs to let their products pass the "quick exit test"?
▋Only choose to stay if you can leave.
The "quick exit test" violates the basic logic of most Web2 platforms: nurture, trap, kill. Look at Facebook. What many call a "product moat" often equates to format incompatibility and huge migration costs. Once an account is deactivated, everything disappears. Platforms are deliberately designed to make it difficult for users to leave in order to extract maximum value.
For entrepreneurs, if a product passes the "quick exit test," it means they can't trap or kill it, so why create trouble for themselves? It's also difficult to convince shareholders: why expend effort to pre-plan "escape routes" for users? Shouldn't you monopolize the data, control the relationships, and profit from them? ... (Full text incomplete)
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