Vitalik calls on the Ethereum community to shift their mindset, adhere to core principles, and rethink application design from scratch

ChainCatcher News: Ethereum founder Vitalik says, I believe that for the Ethereum community, having a bolder and more open mindset—especially at the application layer and in how we view our place in the world—is a good thing. We should not compromise on core attributes: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security (CROPS). Particularly at the application layer and in the interface between Ethereum and the outside world, we should be more willing to thoroughly rethink various concepts and step out of our comfort zones.

Last year, we began to prioritize privacy and treat it equally with other types of security. This means a fundamental change in the Ethereum application stack, as until now, the entire stack has not been built around privacy. Great, let’s build a completely different Ethereum application stack. An example this year is to rethink the role of L2 from scratch and identify which types of L2 can truly generate the greatest synergy and gains with Ethereum. This also includes cultural factors.

For me and others, this is an essential part of the “milady” philosophy. Write down your “decent” ingrained ideas, crumple them up, and burn them. This mental cleansing will lead to an intellectual awakening, inspiring greater creativity and broadening horizons. For a long time, our approach to Ethereum has been: we have an existing ecosystem, so what’s the next step to make it better? Now, our approach should be: we have a fantastic L1 layer that will only get better; we have more and more tools, including those developed inside and outside the ecosystem; based on what we currently know, what is most valuable?

If you were to write the application section of the 2014 Ethereum white paper, starting from first principles in DeFi, decentralized social, identity verification, and other fields, what would you write? At least, first eliminate all path dependency issues, assume the Ethereum chain is currently unused, and you are the first to propose or build the initial applications—see what you would come up with. Even if you are currently building existing applications, do this. This is the secret to Ethereum’s revival.