The trust hierarchy is redefining the soul of the blockchain ecosystem.
For years, decentralization was the rallying cry of the pioneers of the crypto space. But a new ideological current is gaining ground: it’s not about decentralizing everything, but about disaggregating power and multiplying options. They call it trust pluralism. And it’s changing the game.
📌 What does this mean?
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, warned about this in multiple essays:
"Decentralization is a means, not an end. What we are really seeking is to avoid coercive monopolies and enable voluntary choices."
This shift in focus proposes that the true value of cryptocurrencies is not to eliminate power centers, but to allow multiple forms of verifiable authority to exist, where users can choose and, above all, exit when they lose trust.
🧠 From utopia to realistic architecture
Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, simplifies it this way:
“The future is not decentralized, but disaggregated. It is not the end of control, but the birth of many forms of it.”
This implies that blockchains should not be seen as digital anarchies, but as networks with visible, auditable, and replaceable hierarchies.
Do you trust a CEX? Use Binance.
Do you prefer DAO governance? Use Arbitrum or Optimism.
Are you a privacy maximalist? Monero or Zcash.
Each structure has its logic, and the important thing is that you can change without asking for permission.
📊 Examples that prove it:
EigenLayer, Restaking, and protocols like Celestia break away from the idea of 'one for all' and allow for modular trust.
ZkSync, Scroll, and Starknet compete in hierarchical testing structures without sacrificing exit options for users.
