Vitalik Buterin Unveils the “Trust Manifesto,” Warning of Dangerous Centralization Trends
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, alongside researchers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner, has published a new document titled the “Trust Manifesto.” The text is a pointed reminder of what the crypto industry risks losing as projects increasingly trade decentralization for convenience and rapid user growth.
A Call to Recenter Crypto on Its Core Principles
According to Buterin and his co-authors, the crypto ecosystem has become dangerously comfortable integrating centralized components. Hosting nodes, trusted intermediaries, off-chain relays, and permissioned coordination layers — what begins as harmless optimization can gradually erode the foundational ethos of decentralization.
The manifesto argues that each “temporary compromise” slowly accumulates into structural dependence. The authors stress that sacrificing permissionless design in exchange for short-term usability may ultimately undermine the resilience and censorship resistance that blockchain technology was built to ensure.
Where the Slippery Slope Begins
Buterin, Weiss, and Posner highlight a critical threshold: the moment when a project chooses a centralized relay or hosting provider as part of its core architecture. While the decision might seem trivial during early growth stages, the authors warn that repeating this pattern across multiple layers produces systems that are only nominally decentralized.
The message is clear: centralization rarely arrives as a single dramatic event. Instead, it spreads like sediment — accumulating through dozens of small, convenient shortcuts.
Why the Manifesto Matters Now
The publication arrives at a moment when crypto is experiencing explosive growth in rollups, L2 networks, and application-layer infrastructure. Many of these systems rely on centralized sequencers, relayers, and proprietary data-availability frameworks. According to the authors, this trend reflects a broader shift in priorities: user onboarding and speed are taking precedence over decentralization guarantees.
Buterin has repeatedly raised concerns about these architectures, suggesting that the long-term viability of Ethereum’s ecosystem depends on reinforcing trustlessness rather than weakening it. The manifesto serves as an ideological checkpoint for builders navigating the tradeoffs between performance and principle.
The Vision Outlined in the Trust Manifesto
The document urges developers to adopt the following commitments:
- avoid reliance on single points of failure in core infrastructure;
- prioritize permissionless participation across execution and validation layers;
- reduce dependence on centralized relayers and sequencers;
- favor open-source, verifiable, and transparent mechanisms whenever possible;
- design systems that remain resilient even under adversarial conditions.
The authors argue that decentralization is not merely an ideological choice — it is a practical necessity for ensuring long-term security, censorship resistance, and credible neutrality across the crypto ecosystem.
Conclusion
Vitalik Buterin’s “Trust Manifesto” is both a warning and a blueprint. It highlights how easily crypto projects can drift away from decentralization and calls on developers to reclaim the principles that made blockchain transformative in the first place. Whether the industry embraces these guidelines or continues prioritizing rapid growth may determine the integrity of the next decade of Web3 innovation.
Editorial Team — CoinBotLab