Ethereum just turned 10, and Vitalik Buterin returns to reflect on the last decade—and where it’s headed next.

In this conversation, Vitalik shares what surprised him most about Ethereum’s growth, the hard lessons from challenges like The DAO and NFTs, and what he’d do differently if starting again.

We explore Ethereum’s evolving cultural identity, privacy as a core value, the tradeoffs between L1 and L2, and how Vitalik envisions Ethereum surviving an AI-dominated future.

------
🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE
https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-ethereums-next-decade-vitalik-buterin

------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi
https://bankless.cc/Frax

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle

------
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
0:52 Ethereum’s First 2 Years
2:25 Ethereum’s Top Contributions
4:18 Biggest Surprises
7:37 What Took Longer than Expected
9:05 Overcoming Challenges
11:03 Lesson for Younger Vitalik
15:53 Bitcoin vs Ethereum
18:49 Ethereum’s Cultural Evolution
32:11 Privacy on Ethereum
37:42 Nation State Resistant Privacy
43:03 Cypherpunk vs Mainstream
56:05 World Ledger
59:09 Ethereum in 2024
1:02:23 Changes in the Ethereum Foundation
1:10:10 Economic Alignment
1:16:38 Scaling the L1
1:31:21 Ethereum’s Barbell Strategy
1:39:28 Ethereum Nationalism
1:48:28 ETH Treasuries
1:55:19 The Next 10 Years for Ethereum
1:59:35 The Next 10 Years for Vitalik
2:01:25 The Next 10 Years for Bankless
2:02:52 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Vitalik Buterin
https://x.com/VitalikButerin

2021 Endgame
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/12/06/endgame.html

Convex and Concave Dispositions
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2020/11/08/concave.html

------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠