Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, called for an increase in the trend towards centralizing the crypto industry.
Decentralization is at the heart of blockchain technology, but the industry is losing sight of it. At the annual Ethereum Community Conference, held on Wednesday June 2nd, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for a growing trend towards centralizing Crypto.
The vision of privacy, freedom and transparency promoted early cryptography, but things could be a different turn, but Buterin warned. He drew it in parallel with Web 1.0, an early version of the Internet. This has evolved into something very different from the original ideal.
“And I have come to be very different from the early types of Web 1.0 vision, as many of the ways in which the Internet has become common, also serves as government management and business management.”
This shift is not merely a concern about user empowerment, Buterin added. This is also a security risk. Many startups use centralized front-ends such as websites and mobile apps to build distributed applications. Buterin calls these Dapps “Straw House” and claims that attackers can easily compromise on centralized frontends.
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Decentralization standards need to be raised: Buterin
Buterin emphasized that decentralization is not merely about having many verification devices or DAO voting mechanisms. Instead, he pointed out the Walkaway test as a real measure of decentralization. That is, whether the app still works if the core team disappears.
“Essentially, if all the server companies suddenly disappear, do users still have assets? This is the most baseline to try and get out of assets,” explained Buterin.
Interestingly, this idea reflects the logic behind the SEC's Howey test. This is used to determine whether a financial instrument containing a cryptographic token qualifies for security.
read more: Exclusive: Vitalik Buterin steals the “Ai vs. human” debate
