The decentralized finance landscape is entering what Vitalik Buterin describes as a new era of maturity, stability, and real-world reliability. Speaking at a Dromos Labs event, the Ethereum co-founder stated that DeFi has evolved enough to function as a primary financial account, offering users a resilient alternative to traditional banking systems. This marks a major shift for a sector once associated primarily with high-risk speculation.
According to Buterin, DeFi is increasingly viewed as a viable long-term savings vehicle, driven by the industry’s pivot toward more conservative instruments and robust security practices. He emphasized that decentralized finance offers protection to users seeking independence from fiat-based risks, including political interference and arbitrary seizure of funds.
Yet Buterin did not ignore the turbulent history of the ecosystem. He acknowledged past smart contract vulnerabilities, protocol breaches, and recent incidents like the Balancer exploit. However, he stressed that the sector’s defensive capabilities have improved dramatically. In his words, “The level of protection users can expect in 2025 compared to 2019 or 2020 is night and day.”
One of the key pillars supporting this evolution is what Buterin calls the walkaway test, which ensures users can always retrieve their funds independently. He urged developers to prioritize open-source development, permissionless standards, and censorship-resistant architectures as these principles form the backbone of a secure and resilient DeFi ecosystem.
From a technical perspective, Buterin encouraged developers to rely on Layer 1 for liquidity and Layer 2 for scaling, highlighting recent improvements such as increased gas limits. As an example, he cited emerging products like Lighter, which has achieved throughput rates exceeding 10,000 transactions per second. According to him, this level of scaling is already accessible to builders who adopt the right architectural approach.
But the conversation didn’t end with DeFi’s progress. In a parallel announcement, Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation (EF) unveiled a comprehensive document titled the “Manifesto of Trustlessness.” This report warns that despite industry progress, centralization is slowly creeping in, driven largely by user-experience optimizations that sacrifice core crypto principles.
The manifesto outlines clear examples of this shift: hosted RPC nodes becoming the default, centralized sequencers powering many L2 networks, asset custody migrating back to centralized exchanges, and cross-chain solutions unintentionally recreating the hierarchy they were designed to eliminate. As the document states, “Decentralization is eroded not by capture, but by convenience.”
To combat this trend, EF introduces three fundamental rules for trustless design:
- No critical secrets — protocols must not rely on privileged private data.
- No irreplaceable intermediaries — any participant should be interchangeable by following transparent rules.
- No unverifiable results — all state changes must be reproducible using public information.
The manifesto also uses email as a cautionary analogy. While once completely decentralized, email today is heavily consolidated due to anti-spam systems and reputation filters. EF warns that Ethereum could experience a similar fate if the ecosystem prioritizes convenience over sovereignty.
Conclusion:
Vitalik Buterin’s message is clear: DeFi is no longer an experimental niche—it is becoming a viable and secure financial alternative. However, its long-term success depends on preserving the fundamental principles of decentralization. As scaling improves and adoption grows, developers must ensure that every layer of the ecosystem remains transparent, open, and resistant to central control. The future of DeFi won’t be determined by how fast it moves, but by how little it relies on trust per transaction.
