Vitalik Buterin's Trustless Manifesto Reinforces Decentralization as Non-Negotiable for Ethereum

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, in collaboration with Ethereum Foundation researchers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner, has published the Trustless Manifesto, a critical document aimed at preserving decentralization in blockchain development. The manifesto, released on November 13, 2025, serves as a stark warning against the temptation to integrate centralized solutions like hosted nodes or centralized relays, which the authors argue undermine the core trustless nature of cryptocurrency systems.

"Trustlessness is not a feature to add after the fact. It is the thing itself," the manifesto states, emphasizing that without this principle, other benefits such as efficiency, user experience, and scalability become superficial decorations on a fragile core. The authors caution that code written for convenience today could become a future bottleneck, and they urge developers to prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term fixes.

The document highlights real-world implications, referencing the recent Amazon Web Services outage that caused Coinbase's Base chain to lose approximately 25% throughput due to its reliance on a centralized sequencer. In contrast, layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism demonstrated resilience with multi-cloud setups, underscoring the manifesto's message. Buterin and co-authors stress that success should be measured by "trust reduced per transaction" rather than mere transaction speed, reinforcing Ethereum's commitment to censorship resistance and self-sovereignty amid growing institutional adoption.