Vitalik Buterin says he will fully return to decentralized society in 2026.
Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has stated that he plans to fully deploy decentralized social media by 2026, stating that only platforms built on shared and decentralized data layers will foster real competition and support mass communication systems that are tailored to users' needs rather than participation metrics.
In a Wednesday post on X, Buterin said he moved his activity to decentralized social platforms this year, adding that every post he writes or reads in 2026 can be accessed through a multi-client interface that supports Firefly, X, Lens, Farcaster and Bluesky.
“If we want a better society, we need better communication methods,” Buterin said, arguing that decentralization would enable competition by allowing more customers to work on a common social data layer.
Buterin criticizes many crypto-native social projects for relying on speculative tokens instead of meaningful innovation, rewarding pre-existing social capital and short-term value propositions of social fi experiments instead of content quality and constructive discourse.
He compares these efforts to creator subscription models like Substack, which he says better align incentives to high-quality content.
Calling for greater community participation, Buterin urged users and developers to spend more time in a decentralized social ecosystem, saying the industry must move out of a centralized “information warzone” into a competitive frontier of new online interactions.
Related: Vitalik Buterin calls for a new DAO design for onchain disputes and governance
Decentralized social media status
Decentralized social media, or SocialFi, refers to platforms built on open or blockchain-based networks where user accounts, content, and social graphs are not controlled by a single company. While protocols like Lens and Farcaster have gained early traction, the sector has so far struggled to convert that momentum into sustainable mass market adoption.
On Wednesday, core infrastructure provider Neynar bought Farcaster from Merck. “Five years later, it's clear that Farcaster needs a new approach and leadership to achieve its full potential,” Farcaster founder Dan Romero announced the news.
Lens made a leadership transition this week as Ave transferred stewardship of the open-source social protocol to Mask Network, introducing Web3 Social, a company that offers consumer-ready onchain social applications.
Farcaster features over two million total registered users and hundreds of thousands of daily interactions as measured by posts and responses. According to Dunn Analytics data, Lens has accumulated about 506,000 users.
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