Vitalik: The key to Ethereum's long-term sustainable development lies in protocol simplicity and a "garbage collection" mechanism
BlockBeats News, January 18th, Ethereum founder Vitalik posted, stating, "An important aspect of 'trustlessness,' 'escape-hatch-freeness,' and 'sovereignty,' which has long been underestimated, is the simplicity of the protocol. Even if a protocol is super decentralized, with hundreds of thousands of nodes, and has 49% Byzantine fault tolerance, where nodes use quantum-secure peerda and stark to fully validate everything, but if the protocol is a clumsy mess composed of hundreds of thousands of lines of code and five forms of cryptic doctorate-level cryptography, ultimately the protocol will fail to pass all three tests: not fully trustless, not fully sovereign, and not very secure."
One concern I have about Ethereum protocol development is that we may be too eager to add new features to meet specific needs, even if these features make the protocol bloated, or introduce entirely new interactive components or complex cryptographic technologies as key dependencies. This may bring short-term feature upgrades, but it will severely compromise the protocol's long-term sovereignty. The core issue is that if we measure protocol changes based on "how much change to the existing protocol," then to maintain backward compatibility, adding functions will far outnumber removing functions, and the protocol will inevitably become bloated over time. To address this issue, Ethereum's development process needs a clear "simplify" / "garbage collection" mechanism.
We hope that client developers will no longer have to deal with all old versions of the Ethereum protocol. This can be left to older version clients running in Docker containers to handle. In the long run, I hope that Ethereum's pace of change will slow down. I think, for various reasons, this is ultimately inevitable. The initial fifteen years should be seen as a growth stage, where we explored many ideas and observed which ones were effective, which were useful, and which were not. We should strive to prevent those useless parts from becoming a permanent drag on the Ethereum protocol."
You may also like

Cardano (ADA) Price Review for February 3
Cardano’s ADA price dropped 1% in the last day, trading at $0.2999, amid a broader red zone for…

Ripple Participates in Critical White House Summit
Ripple joined key crypto firms and banking giants at a White House meeting focused on stablecoin regulation, highlighting…

SHIB Price Analysis on February 3
SHIB’s rate dropped 0.74% in the last 24 hours, showing bears still hold sway. Hourly chart reveals rising…

Crypto Market Review: Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) 1,000,000,000,000 Bull Market Trigger, Bitcoin (BTC) Crash Might Stop Here, Is Dogecoin (DOGE) in Mini-Bull Market?
Shiba Inu shows a green candle with volume spike after decline, hinting at potential recovery but not confirming…

Crypto Apocalypse Imminent, Expert Who Predicted 2008 Financial Crisis Warns
Nouriel Roubini predicts a full-blown apocalypse for the cryptocurrency market, claiming it lacks real use cases beyond crime…

Top 3 Meme Coins Price Prediction: Dogecoin, Shiba Inu And MemeCore Ahead of Market Recovery
Meme coins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and MemeCore show recovery signs with price gains of 5.45%, 5%, and…

Trump Names Bitcoin-Friendly Kevin Warsh as Choice for Federal Reserve Chair
President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve Chair, highlighting his pro-Bitcoin stance and policy experience. Warsh…

XRP Price Faces Slide to $1 Amid Slumping XRPL Metrics and Burn Rate
XRP price hit a low of $1.500 this week, marking its lowest point since November 2024, with a…

Cardano Price Prediction as the Upcoming CME’s ADA Futures Launch Nears
Cardano price trades under pressure, stabilizing below $0.30 after a decline, showing compression rather than new weakness. CME…

Jeffrey Epstein Invested in Bitcoin Firm Blockstream, Invited Founder Adam Back to Island
Adam Back confirmed Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in Blockstream via a 2014 seed round through Joi Ito’s fund at…

SEC Chair Paul Atkins to Create History as First Sitting Chair to Speak at The Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins will speak at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference, marking the first time a sitting SEC…

HYPE Price Outlook After Hyperliquid’s HIP-4 Rollout Ignites Prediction-Style Trading Boom
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token price jumped above $37 with a 20% gain, landing it in the top 10 cryptocurrencies…

Trump States Crypto Reserve Will Hold XRP, Solana, Cardano—And ‘Obviously’ Bitcoin and Ethereum
President Trump announced a U.S. strategic crypto reserve including XRP, Solana, Cardano, Bitcoin, and Ethereum to position the…

Strategy Stock ($MSTR) Reaches 52-Week Low As Bitcoin Craters Below $84,000
Strategy ($MSTR) stock hit a 52-week low of $140.25 amid a sharp Bitcoin price drop below $84,000, with…

Jeffrey Epstein’s Strange Bitcoin Connections
The US Department of Justice released new Epstein Files detailing Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Brock Pierce, a key…

Moonbirds NFTs Now Soaring Again: What’s Behind the Price Surge
Moonbirds NFTs, launched in 2022 by Kevin Rose’s Proof, saw their floor price crash from double-digit ETH to…

The Best Airdrop Hunts of the Month: January 2026
This guide spotlights five promising tokenless protocols for early airdrop opportunities in January 2026, curated to help users…

Is It a Crypto Winter? Burry Says $50K, Tiger Says No
Michael Burry predicts Bitcoin could drop to $50,000, triggering mining firm bankruptcies and a collapse in tokenized metals…
Cardano (ADA) Price Review for February 3
Cardano’s ADA price dropped 1% in the last day, trading at $0.2999, amid a broader red zone for…
Ripple Participates in Critical White House Summit
Ripple joined key crypto firms and banking giants at a White House meeting focused on stablecoin regulation, highlighting…
SHIB Price Analysis on February 3
SHIB’s rate dropped 0.74% in the last 24 hours, showing bears still hold sway. Hourly chart reveals rising…
Crypto Market Review: Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) 1,000,000,000,000 Bull Market Trigger, Bitcoin (BTC) Crash Might Stop Here, Is Dogecoin (DOGE) in Mini-Bull Market?
Shiba Inu shows a green candle with volume spike after decline, hinting at potential recovery but not confirming…
Crypto Apocalypse Imminent, Expert Who Predicted 2008 Financial Crisis Warns
Nouriel Roubini predicts a full-blown apocalypse for the cryptocurrency market, claiming it lacks real use cases beyond crime…
Top 3 Meme Coins Price Prediction: Dogecoin, Shiba Inu And MemeCore Ahead of Market Recovery
Meme coins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and MemeCore show recovery signs with price gains of 5.45%, 5%, and…