Vitalik Buterin Lays Out Plans to Regain Blockchain Sovereignty

Blockchain

Vitalik Buterin Lays Out Plans to Regain Blockchain Sovereignty

• Vitalik Buterin wants to return sovereignty and trustlessness to Ethereum in 2026.
• No more making compromises in the pursuit of mainstream adoption.
• Regaining sovereignty on the Ethereum blockchain is a gradual process.

According to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, 2026 is the year the blockchain community takes back lost ground in terms of self-sovereignty and trustlessness. In his latest post on X, Buterin highlighted developments with the blockchain ecosystem that he thinks will promote this idea.

2026 is the year that we take back lost ground in terms of self-sovereignty and trustlessness.

Some of what this practically means:

Full nodes: thanks to ZK-EVM and BAL, it will once again become easier to locally run a node and verify the Ethereum chain on your own computer.…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 16, 2026

How to Regain Sovereignty of Ethereum

Buterin identified the return of full nodes via the Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (ZK-EVM) and Balancer (BAL), a DeFi protocol on Ethereum that functions as a decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM), citing them as developments that will allow Ethereum users to run nodes locally on personal computers.

The prominent blockchain expert cited other protocols, including Helios, a Layer 1 blockchain that enables data verification and a privacy-enhancing cryptographic system, highlighting their potential benefits for blockchain users and the solutions they bring to the current dispensation of the decentralized ecosystem.

No More Compromise

Other elements identified by Buterin that will contribute to the return of sovereignty and trustlessness in the blockchain space include Social Recovery Wallets, Privacy UX, Privacy Censorship Resistance, and Application UIs. Buterin noted that the Ethereum community has underperformed in these areas over the past decade, with nodes becoming difficult to run, alongside other complications.

According to Buterin, the Ethereum ecosystem will adjust in 2026, with the community no longer compromising its protocol in the pursuit of mainstream adoption. He promised an era of constant improvements via a series of changes, beginning with the recently launched Kohaku update and other hard forks that will follow.

Ethereum community members responding to Buterin‘s post highlighted specific areas of concern, with one user noting that the ability to run individual nodes and verify one’s own data is a crucial aspect of blockchain that most people ignore.

Another user supporting this view noted that self-sovereignty is not optional for tokenized financial assets. According to him, investors should be able to verify positions without trusting a blackbox RPC or hosted UI.

Meanwhile, one user sought more clarification from Buterin on how to make the proposed social recovery wallets and timelocks work. The user demanded more clarification of Buterins initial explanation about users not losing their funds after misplacing the seedphrase to their wallets.