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Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
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ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and prominent developers published the “No trust manifesto“, a broad statement requiring that blockchain systems prioritize mathematical verification over intermediary trust.
The document comes amid growing criticism that the Ethereum ecosystem has moved toward centralization, despite public commitments to decentralization.
Just last month, former core developers revealed that a small group of insiders effectively controls the success of the project and the direction of the protocol.
The manifesto affirms that trust, where the correction of the system is based only on mathematics and consensus regarding the goodwill of the intermediaries.
“Ethereum was not created to make efficient finance or convenient apps“, the authors write.It was created to set people free.“
Manifesto sets out six Core Requirements for Decentralized Systems
The document sets strict criteria for trustless design:
- Self-sovereignty, where users authorize their own actions
- Verifiability through public data
- Resistance to censorship in reasonable terms
- Substitution of operator without approval
- Practical accessibility beyond technical experts
- Transparent incentive structures.
Removing any requirement causes systems to “derives from the protocol to the platform – from neutral ground to private property,” according to the text.
The manifesto applies three laws that prohibit critical secrets held by single actors, indispensable intermediaries that users cannot realistically replace, and unverifiable results that lack public reproducibility.
“These laws are tough“, acknowledge the authors.”They limit what we can easily build, but they are the only guarantee that what we build belongs to everyone.“
Beyond the theoretical frameworks, the paper warns that centralization already permeates the Ethereum infrastructure through hosted RPCs that serve as defaults, the AWS-GCP-Cloudflare dependency that creates single points of failure, and the centralized sequence in multiple rollups.
“Decentralization erodes not by capture, but by convenience“, says the poster, comparing the trajectory to the evolution of e-mail, where spam filters and blocklists made self-hosted servers practically impossible, despite remaining theoretically open.
The former developer exposes the “Control Elite” contradicting the claims of decentralization
The release of the poster follows bombshell revelations from Geth’s former lead developer Péter Szilágyiwho published a letter of May 2024 that exposes how five to ten people around Buterin maintain “complete indirect control” over the direction of Ethereum through the allocation of attention, donations, investments and researcher assignments.
The projects no longer make public offers, but instead ensure the support of the same insiders, creating what Szilágyi called “the ruling elite” where success requires conviction “And 5-10 people around Vitalik – or even him – to engage.“
Separately, Szilágyi revealed that he earned only $625,000 in six years running Ethereum’s primary execution client with zero benefits or raises, describing the Foundation’s employment as “a bad financial decision“who created”a perfect breeding ground for perverse incentives, conflicts of interest and eventual protocol capture.“
He alerted the Foundation”establish protocol for capture“paying the contributors who take care of the principles, forcing them to look for compensation elsewhere, while those who remain feel”useful fools“Watching the big players reshape the protocol.
Feelings at the moment summarize the dynamic as “We are happy that you have built an empire for us, now step away and let the people who can make us money take the lead,” according to Szilágyi.
Paradigm’s growing influence on Ethereum
Separate warnings also appeared at the same time when the core developer of Ethereum “Internist of Faith” warning the influence of that venture capital firm Paradigm”in Ethereum could become a relevant risk for the ecosystem.”
Paradigm manages $12.7 billion and has positioned itself on several fronts, including hiring top researchers, funding critical open-source libraries like Reth, and launching Tempo.
Tempo is a competing layer-1 blockchain that has raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation from traditional finance companies, including Greenoaks, Thrive, Stripe and Sequoia.
Concerns are intensifying following the departure of Dankrad Feist, a longtime researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, to Tempo, where Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang will serve as CEO while maintaining his role at the venture firm.
“When corporations gain too much legibility and influence over open source projects, priorities begin to shift away from the community’s long-term vision and toward corporate incentives.“, the developer warned, noting that Paradigm’s failed FTX investment led them to “remove most references to crypto and pivot heavily towards AI.”
