Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum ($ETH), has recently met with Przemek Kowalczyk, the CEO of Ramp Network at ETHWarsaw event in Warsaw, Poland. In the meeting, both the entrepreneurs discussed the potential advancements in the Web3 landscape, the key role that Ethereum plays in this respect, and growing censorship resistance and privacy. Both the executives outlined the former technological milestones and the ongoing endeavors to protect decentralization and back worldwide adoption.
Why Ethereum Foundation Matters?
At the start of the discussion, Vitalik Buterin explained the purpose of launching the Ethereum Foundation. He stressed it as a critical decision for the growth of Ethereum ($ETH). In this respect, he added, without the foundation’s developer support that was funded by ICO, Ethereum would not have gained its quality and scale.
Dissimilar to Bitcoin ($BTC), which progressed with the support of its early holders, Ethereum required a mission-aligned, structure non-profit company. While not following the for-profit approach, Ethereum now pays considerable attention to preserving censorship resistance, privacy, and decentralization.
As Vitalik Buterin said, “If it was launched by a for-profit company that had shareholders, this is something that people would just not be willing to accept, and the project would just not be able to succeed.”
Apart from that, Buterin also admitted the significance of regulatory engagement, backing regional crypto community, and avoiding any political entanglements.
Rapid Evolution of Memecoin Narratives
The Ethereum co-founder then spoke on the memecoin mania whirlwind that dominated the year 2024. In this respect, he mentioned that, despite the initial hype of the meme tokens, they ultimately decline in terms of value.
Hence, the market was flooded by many copycats, with majority of such projects resulting in pump-and-dump schemes, draining hard-earned money of more than 99% of the participants. Keeping this in view, the market is currently moving toward valuable DeFi services that provide real-world utility.
Vitalik Buterin mentioned, “At the beginning they were selling strawberries, and then at the end they were selling heroin.”
In this respect, the privacy-enhancing tools developed on zero-knowledge proofs are being incorporated, combining confidentiality and decentralization.
Preserving Ethereum’s Vision While Starting Next Chapter in Evolution
Apart from that, Vitalik Buterin also talked about the future agenda of the Ethereum Foundation. He asserted that the platform gives core importance to censorship resistance, privacy, and inclusive governance.
He said, “You are not going to be immune to the pressures of the environment that you create — so make sure you create a good one.”
Moreover, the Foundation is set to champion projects that might be overlooked by commercial actors. Therefore, whether via open-source protocol operations, regulatory engagement, or local community grants, the platform attempts to maintain its ethos with further growth.
