Vitalik: Plans to fully return to decentralized social in 2026, competition and decentralization are the starting points for improving public discourse

Vitalik Buterin stated that he plans to fully return to decentralized social networks in 2026, believing that if we want to build a better society, we must have better large-scale communication tools. These tools should help people filter high-quality information and opinions, find consensus, and serve the long-term interests of users rather than maximizing short-term interactions and emotional conflicts.

Vitalik pointed out that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution to the above problems, but enhancing competition is an important starting point, and decentralization is the key path to achieving competition: by sharing a data layer that allows anyone to build different clients on top of it. He revealed that since the beginning of this year, he has started using decentralized social tools for reading and posting, with all content synchronized across platforms like X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky through Firefly.

He also criticized some crypto social projects for deviating from their original intentions, overly viewing "token issuance" as innovation, and attempting to create price bubbles around individuals to incentivize creators. However, practice shows that such models often reward existing social capital rather than content quality, and the lifecycle of tokens is short. Vitalik emphasized that money and social interaction are not inherently in conflict; the key is whether they truly serve the content itself, such as through subscription-based support models rather than speculative asset designs.

In his view, decentralized social should be driven by teams that genuinely care about the "essence of social interaction." Vitalik acknowledged the Aave team's previous long-term maintenance of Lens and expressed anticipation for the direction of the new team, believing they are more focused on solving real social problems. He stated that in the coming year, he will speak more on decentralized social platforms and encourage more users to participate in ecosystems like Lens and Farcaster, breaking free from the information adversarial environment of a single platform and exploring new forms of interaction.