Vitalik Buterin: "Privacy is freedom"
Date: 2025-04-16 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
On April 14, Vitalik Buterin published a blog post discussing the importance of privacy in the modern digital world. In his opinion, considering transparency an unambiguous good is naive and even dangerous. This point of view is based on outdated assumptions about the good intentions of the authorities and the continuous development of society in a positive way, which he categorically disagrees with.
Buterin noted that today there is not a single large country in relation to which one could confidently say that its political leadership acts in the interests of its citizens. Moreover, cultural tolerance, according to him, is rapidly deteriorating. In support of this, he cited the results of a search for the phrase "bullying is good" on X (former Twitter), where the number of positive mentions was alarming.
He also shared his personal experience: due to his fame, any of his actions can suddenly become public knowledge. He emphasized that no one is immune from one day not being in the spotlight, even if they comply with all social norms.
Buterin also expressed concerns about the development of technology. He believes that in the future there will be “brain-computer” interfaces that will be able to literally read thoughts. Another threat is automatic pricing, in which companies set prices based on the client’s expected solvency.
He sharply criticized the idea of introducing “back doors” for government agencies into data protection systems. Buterin recalled that access to information is often not only available to government agencies, but also to private companies, including banks, telecom operators, and other intermediaries. This data is often subject to abuse or leaks. He warned: even if the authorities seem reliable today, there is no guarantee that they will remain so in the future. That is why, in his opinion, the best protection is not to collect data at all.
He also pointed out that in the past, the volumes of data available at the request of authorities were significantly smaller than today. In the 19th century, conversations were not recorded, but now every step can be recorded.
As a solution, he proposed using technologies based on zero-knowledge proofs. They allow you to verify the veracity of information without disclosing the information itself. As an example, he cited a system for proving the uniqueness of an individual without disclosing personal data, as well as a new mechanism called Privacy Pools, which ensures the anonymity of transactions while complying with regulatory requirements.
Buterin concluded his post with a reminder: for Ethereum, improving privacy at the protocol level and the entire ecosystem should be a priority.
