Vitalik Buterin: Overcomplexity is Eroding the Blockchain's "Trustlessness" Foundation

BlockBeats News, December 18, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the Ethereum blockchain needs to better explain its features to users in order to achieve true "trustlessness," which is a common challenge faced by all blockchain protocols.

Trustlessness means that the protocol does not require developer oversight and instead automatically enforces rules through code. However, if the protocol is too complex to the point where only a few people can participate in its operation, then in practice, others still have to trust that group.

Ethereum itself already has trustless features, as transactions and smart contracts are executed by open-source code and a decentralized validator network. But in a Wednesday tweetstorm, Buterin pointed out that the network still needs to improve users' understanding.

"One important but underestimated form of trustlessness is increasing the number of people who truly understand the entire protocol from top to bottom. Ethereum needs to do better in this regard by simplifying the protocol."

When asked about the feasibility of this vision given the trade-off between technical features and user understanding, Buterin said, "We should be willing to reduce some functionality at certain times."