Most founders spend their careers making themselves indispensable. Vitalik Buterin keeps making the case that Ethereum should be able to run without him.

The Ethereum co-founder has once again stressed that the protocol can advance without his direct involvement, as more community members take responsibility for its core values. He made the point most recently at the Network State Conference 2026 in Singapore on October 9, and it is a theme he has returned to repeatedly this year. For a network built on the premise of decentralization, how far its most recognizable figure can recede is a governance question that extends well beyond one person's role.

What Buterin said in Singapore

Buterin used the Singapore stage to describe a shift toward a widely distributed leadership model across the Ethereum community, and he tied that shift to technology as well. Buterin said AI could speed up the “Lean Ethereum” roadmap, a planned overhaul meant to make the protocol more efficient.

Lean Ethereum is not a minor patch. The proposal aims to replace significant core components of the protocol, which makes it one of the more ambitious engineering projects in the ecosystem.

A smaller Ethereum Foundation, by design

In May, Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that supports the network's ecosystem, should become smaller and concentrate on a narrow set of core properties: censorship resistance, open source development, privacy and security. Everything else, in his framing, is fair game for other ecosystem participants to pick up.

He also said at the time that his own personal influence would diminish. He has described the EF as just one node among thousands in the Ethereum ecosystem.

The walkaway test

Buterin has a name for the standard he wants Ethereum to meet: the “walkaway test.” The idea is that the protocol should keep functioning through external contributions, even if any single team or person stopped showing up.

Founder-dependence is a long-running tension across the blockchain industry: these networks are designed so that no single participant is essential, yet many remain closely identified with prominent founders. Buterin's benchmark speaks directly to that gap. He emphasized Ethereum's ability to pass that test at the 4 Hong Kong Web3 Festival on April 20, 2026. Recent discussions in the community have also put weight on external support from key players across the ecosystem.

Not a new idea for Buterin

Back in 2021, at the “AskVitalikBA” conference, Buterin made the same basic point in plainer terms: “Ethereum will exist with or without Vitalik Buterin.”

Concerns about how the EF would restructure as community involvement grew were already visible around that time. What has changed is the specificity. In 2021, the idea was a philosophical statement. In 2026, it comes with a defined list of EF priorities, a named test, and a technical roadmap that Buterin believes AI could accelerate.

What this means for Ethereum's stakeholders

Buterin is actively trying to remove himself from that equation. If the walkaway test holds up in practice, Ethereum's long-term story rests more on the depth of its contributor base than on any one name.

A smaller EF also changes the competitive dynamics inside the ecosystem. Work the foundation chooses not to do creates openings for other teams, companies and research groups.

The things to watch are concrete. One is how quickly the EF follows through on narrowing its focus to censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security. Another is which outside players step in to take on work the foundation sheds. A third is whether Lean Ethereum's milestones actually arrive sooner, as Buterin suggests AI might allow.

Source: CryptoBriefing