Vitalik Buterin Explains How Ethereum Will Reach Millions Without Going Centralized

Ethereum has been gaining momentum lately, and not just in price.

As the crypto market heats up, Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, recently shared his thoughts on how Ethereum can grow bigger without losing what makes it special. With new tech upgrades and more real-world use, Ethereum is finally getting closer to living up to its full potential.

Time to “make ETH great again”. Here’s the plan!

The Two Pillars: Scalability and Decentralisation

In a recent podcast, Buterin shared two core goals that Ethereum must balance when he was asked, “How do we make Ethereum great again?”

First, massive real-world usage. He stressed that Ethereum needs to scale and provide a good user experience so that millions of people can use it. That means improving scalability and user experience so that the network is fast, affordable, and easy to use.

And secondly, sovereign decentralization. He believes Ethereum must stay truly different from centralized systems by being neutral, resistant to censorship, and easy for anyone to verify.

To support this, Ethereum is already rolling out major technical upgrades. Technologies like zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups and stateless clients are being adopted so that powerful nodes can process data while allowing everyone else to verify it more easily.

Interesting Upgrades to Ethereum’s Tech Stack

Thanks to Layer 2 networks, Ethereum can already process hundreds of transactions per second. But it won’t stop there. The upcoming “Pectra” upgrade is expected to significantly increase transaction throughput, potentially reaching thousands of transactions per second.

By 2026, Buterin believes the main Ethereum network could become ten times faster than it is today, making it a much stronger foundation for global adoption.

DeFi is Getting Safer and Stronger

Vitalik admits that in the past, recommending DeFi to average users was not responsible, as the risk of losing 100% of your money from bugs or hacks was too high. However, he also points out that the ecosystem has matured. Data shows that such incidents are becoming less common, especially among mature protocols.

At the same time, user safety is improving with tools like social recovery wallets, multisig setups, and account abstraction, making it easier for regular users to manage their assets more securely.

ETH Leads the Market Rally

With strong fundamentals, Ethereum continues to outperform Bitcoin, gaining over 60% this month. It is currently trading at $3,890, up 3% in the last 24 hours, with a trading volume of over $34 million. Despite the latest rally, it remains 20% below its all-time high of $4,891.