Ethereum’s Vitalik reworks a sci-fi novel: From exploring DAOs to AI, a digital thought experiment unfolds

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik announces suspension of his technical blog, shifting instead to creating a science fiction novel centered on decentralized governance, using a fictional world to explore digital social systems.

Vitalik begins using fiction to simulate on-chain governance societies

Vitalik Buterin recently announced that he will temporarily stop his long-standing technical blog content and instead dedicate himself to writing a science fiction novel with "decentralized governance" at its core. This Ethereum co-founder has completed the first two chapters, which have been published on his personal website and Farcaster, sparking intense discussion within the crypto community and developer circles.

Image source: Farcaster/@vitalik.eth Vitalik Buterin recently announced that he will temporarily stop his long-term technical blog content and instead focus on creating a science fiction novel centered on "decentralized governance."

In the past, Vitalik extensively studied DAO, public goods, on-chain governance, and voting mechanisms through articles. Now, he is reimagining these concepts within a fictional universe. Compared to directly testing high-risk governance models on the Ethereum mainnet, science fiction storytelling allows him greater freedom to simulate institutional operations, human conflicts, and societal consequences. Many developers see this as Vitalik extending his research on crypto governance from technical documents and EIPs into cultural and narrative realms.

The world in the novel is also rich with on-chain governance elements. The story takes place in a society called Veridia, where there is no highly centralized government. Instead, social operations are maintained through cryptographic verification, decentralized decision-making, and random selection mechanisms. Governance involves Keepers who set rules and tax rates, Sentinels who review and enforce them, and the protagonist Gladias, a governance intern. These settings clearly echo Vitalik’s long-standing advocacy for "governing society through economic mechanisms and community coordination."

From DAO to AI, Vitalik fully novels the Web3 worldview

One of the most notable features in the novel is the deep integration of AI, cryptography, and on-chain identity systems into societal infrastructure. Characters conceal identities with privacy cloaks, governance tasks are assigned randomly via cryptographic systems, and even the identities of governance members are subject to bounty-based exposure. The AI assistant DeepChat can analyze music, compare governance cases, and assist decision-making in real-time, but ultimate judgment remains in human hands.

Vitalik also depicts the limitations of AI through the novel. He believes that when data is insufficient or social contexts are too complex, humans must still rely on experience, intuition, and value judgments, rather than fully delegating to algorithms. This design continues his long-term reflection on the boundaries between human coordination mechanisms and machine governance.

Chapter two further expands the universe to another city, Dzego, depicting a society that maintains technological civilization through cryptography, decentralized industry, and underground education systems. The story describes residents using anonymous coordination and decentralized networks to operate under hostile regimes. These settings evoke real-world DAO, Cypherpunk ideals, and crypto community culture, transforming the novel from mere entertainment into a thought experiment on future digital societies.

Web3 begins building its own cultural narrative universe

For a long time, the crypto industry has produced numerous whitepapers, governance proposals, and technical documents, but few have succeeded in weaving blockchain, DAO, AI, and crypto community culture into a cohesive story universe. Vitalik’s turn to science fiction is seen by many as a sign that Web3 cultural storytelling is beginning to mature.

Historically, Bitcoin’s world had the "Cyberpunk Manifesto," and Ethereum has various governance and technical discourses, but very few have translated on-chain worlds into novels, characters, and social systems. Now, Vitalik clearly aims to fill this gap. Some developers even describe this work as a "DAO version of 'Dune'" or "Ethereum’s 'Three-Body Problem'."

As Farcaster, AI agents, on-chain identities, and decentralized communities continue to develop, the future of Web3 may no longer be limited to finance and infrastructure competition. Instead, it will also see the emergence of its own cultural content and worldview battles. For Vitalik, this project is also a new governance experiment—just with the testing ground shifting from blockchain mainnet to a novel universe.