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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has called on crypto developers to refocus on building tools that enhance individual sovereignty rather than encourage extraction and reckless financial behavior.
In a Farcaster post responding to Monad KOL Tom Kruise, Buterin distinguished between “the open web” and “the sovereign web,” crediting Bitcoin maximalists for understanding this separation years ahead of the broader industry.
Buterin argued that Bitcoin proponents resisted ICOs, alternative tokens, and arbitrary financial applications precisely to preserve sovereignty over what he calls “corposlop”, a term describing platforms optimized for corporate profit at users’ expense.
He urged the industry to build privacy-preserving applications, wealth-building tools without dangerous leverage, and AI systems that enhance rather than replace human productivity.
From Government Control to Corporate Extraction
Buterin traced the evolution of sovereignty from its early 2000s focus on avoiding government overreach to today’s broader challenge of resisting corporate manipulation.
He explained that modern sovereignty requires securing digital privacy through cryptography while protecting against what he termed “corporate mind warfare” designed to extract attention and dollars.
The Ethereum founder emphasized that sovereignty also means pursuing projects based on genuine belief rather than chasing “the meta”, the homogenizing forces that strip away individuality and purpose.
He called for privacy-preserving local-first applications that minimize data leaks to third parties and crypto apps that help users grow wealth without pushing 50x leverage, sports betting, or loans for everyday purchases like burritos.
Buterin extended his critique to AI development, advocating for maximally open, privacy-friendly tools that merge human and machine capabilities rather than encouraging passive reliance on automation.
He challenged DAOs to support organizations pursuing unique objectives instead of falling captive to the same influential groups, suggesting privacy-preserving and non-tokenholder-driven voting could help maintain independence.
The Corposlop Problem Threatening Crypto’s Soul
Buterin defined corposlop as the toxic combination of corporate optimization power, sleek branding creating an aura of respectability, and behavior that contradicts that respectability in pursuit of maximum profit.
He identified social media platforms as prime examples, criticizing their dopamine-maximizing algorithms that prioritize short-term engagement over long-term value and fulfillment.
The critique extended to mass data collection practices followed by careless management or outright selling to third parties.
Buterin described corposlop as “soulless trend-following homogeneity that is both evil and lame,” encompassing products that appear to serve users while actually disempowering them.
He singled out walled gardens like Apple’s ecosystem for preventing cross-platform linking, though he acknowledged the company’s privacy emphasis and opinionated long-term vision.
“I have many qualms with Apple, but aside from their monopolistic practices, they actually have many non-corposlop traits,” Buterin wrote, praising their resistance to trend-following while urging them to end monopolistic behavior and embrace open source strategies.
Building Toward True Digital Independence
Buterin called on developers and investors to channel energy into social media platforms, giving users control over content curation while appealing to long-term goals rather than short-term impulses.
“Be sovereign. Reject corposlop and believe in somETHing,” he declared, framing the challenge as both technical and philosophical.
The sovereignty post follows recent writings where Buterin argued Ethereum must prioritize bandwidth scaling over latency reduction due to physical and decentralization constraints.
That challenge came as Ethereum achieved technical breakthroughs addressing the blockchain trilemma through zero-knowledge EVMs and PeerDAS technology, driving 110% growth in new addresses since December’s Fusaka upgrade.
Buterin also recently defended Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, who faces up to five years in prison after prosecutors framed software development as criminal conduct.
Storm, co-founder of the privacy protocol, renewed calls for public support this week, with Buterin’s intervention highlighting the stakes in preserving crypto’s foundational principles against regulatory pressure.
