Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has issued a stark warning to the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, outlining a stricter stance from the Ethereum Foundation that prioritizes security, decentralization, and user sovereignty over rapid growth. In a detailed post, Buterin emphasized that the Foundation will no longer support "onchain finance" indiscriminately but will actively push for a narrower vision of "permissionless, open-source, private, security-first global finance."
A key pillar of this vision is the "walkaway test," a standard requiring that DeFi protocols must continue to function even if the founding team disappears or becomes compromised. Buterin criticized the prevalent reliance on admin keys, hidden control points, and centralized upgrade mechanisms, stating they embed unacceptable trust risks into Ethereum's financial layer. "If a system depends on a small group to pause, upgrade, or override it, that creates a trust risk. The Foundation does not want that risk embedded into Ethereum’s financial layer," he argued.
Buterin framed DeFi not as a side project but as "a central part of the value that Ethereum provides," crucial for financial empowerment and agency. His thesis has two parts: an aspirational call for renewed innovation in financial primitives—like the paradigm shift once brought by Automated Market Makers (AMMs)—and a filtering mechanism to elevate protocols that minimize centralized chokepoints.
The most urgent alarm was raised regarding oracle security. Buterin explicitly singled out "oracle security and decentralization" as a priority area, warning that "there’s A LOT of skeletons in the closet here, we as an ecosystem really need to point a big eye of sauron at it for a while." This highlights a known but under-discussed critical vulnerability, as oracles serve as the essential bridge between on-chain smart contracts and off-chain data for lending, stablecoins, derivatives, and liquidations.
His broader roadmap includes classic security work like audits and standards, alongside newer approaches such as AI-assisted formal verification and user-side agents as safeguards. He also emphasized the importance of privacy for complex financial positions and open-source licensing.
While acknowledging that Ethereum will always allow the deployment of "insecure protocols" or "dopamine-maximizing gambleslop," Buterin signaled the Foundation's intent to actively collaborate with builders aligned with its vision. The goal is to make this secure, user-centric version of DeFi "a globally compelling way to manage funds." At the time of the report, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $1,912.
