Vitalik on Ethereum: ETH treasury reserve strategy is "beneficial and valuable"

Author: Jack Inabinet, Source: Bankless, Translated by: Shaw, Jinse Finance

Ethereum has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. To mark this milestone, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin appeared on the Bankless podcast hosted by Ryan and David, reflecting on the development of Ethereum over the past decade and discussing the future direction of the network.

This nearly two-hour interview is rich in content, filled with bold predictions, candid reflections, and philosophical insights.

ETH has real value

Although Vitalik is not always keen to discuss ETH prices, Ryan and David seem pleased to hear Vitalik respond to questions about the value of ETH in the summary of this conversation.

For many cryptocurrency observers, the price of ETH is the glue that tightly binds the entire Ethereum ecosystem together. In an interview, Vitalik also seemed to acknowledge this, expressing his pleasure at seeing the Ethereum community united around ETH and prioritizing ETH as the economic center of Ethereum.

Similarly, when asked about the Ethereum treasury reserve company, Vitalik stated that they provide individuals with various ways to gain exposure to ETH investments, adding that coordinating around holding ETH on its balance sheet as part of its treasury is "beneficial and valuable."

Privacy: The Next Frontier for Ethereum

Decentralization was Ethereum's first major attempt, and privacy is likely to be its next goal. Vitalik invested a significant amount of time in this episode to elaborate on an ambitious privacy roadmap that balances principles with practicality.

From default privacy wallets to scalable non-custodial privacy pools, Vitalik has made it clear that zero-knowledge cryptography is the key to achieving full privacy on Ethereum and realizing its cypherpunk ideals.

In his vision, privacy is a freedom that should not be limited to purists or pirates; it must be built for the masses. To achieve this goal, Ethereum must adopt a model similar to "Bronze Age Sturgeon," with an atmosphere at the front end and policies at the back end, thereby achieving scalable privacy protection on both technical and cultural levels.

Ethereum L2 Barbell Strategy is Working

Despite the ongoing concerns about the fragmentation of L2 networks in 2024, Vitalik still insists on the Barbell strategy, claiming that this strategy keeps the Ethereum mainnet lean, neutral, and highly secure, while providing L2 networks with room for experimentation in scalability, user experience, and alternative block generation processes.

Vitalik does not see L2 as direct competition or failure, but rather as a functional separation of responsibilities, where L2 actively optimizes performance and meets the needs of ordinary users, while L1 maintains decentralization and serves as the ultimate authoritative source.

Although Vitalik emphasized the necessity of accelerating withdrawal speeds, increasing shard space fees, and adding ETH-denominated assets, he believes that the further development of L2 will make Ethereum an increasingly powerful gravitational center, allowing them to continue to operate around it.