Vitalik Buterin Discusses Power Dynamics in Crypto Projects

According to Odaily, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently published an article titled "Balance of Power," focusing on the themes of power and checks and balances. Buterin highlights that many crypto projects tend to concentrate on their business models, which involve securing resources to sustain team operations, while neglecting the equally crucial aspect of decentralization. This oversight can lead to excessive power concentration within the projects, posing systemic risks. Buterin argues that decentralization is naturally achievable in certain scenarios, such as the English language system or open protocols like TCP, IP, and HTTP, where there are no clear central control points, making it difficult for a single entity to dominate. However, in other use cases, decentralization does not occur naturally and requires deliberate institutional and architectural design by the project teams. He emphasizes that the crypto industry faces a significant challenge in balancing the benefits of centralization, such as flexibility and efficiency, without suffering from the drawbacks of concentrated power. Buterin urges project teams to critically evaluate their power structures and consider decentralization as an equally important design goal alongside their business models.