Vitalik Buterin Compares Low-Risk DeFi to Google’s Search Engine

Buterin sees low-risk DeFi as a key economic driver, akin to Google's search.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has identified the low-risk DeFi sector as the primary economic driver of the ecosystem. In his view, it could play a role for the network similar to that of search for Google.

Low-risk defi used to be constrained by regulatory barriers and smart contract safety risks. Both problems have greatly improved.

For many people worldwide, defi today is in some cases already safer than tradfi. pic.twitter.com/ZC9NKF2DbA

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 21, 2025

Buterin drew an analogy with the corporation’s business model, where search and advertising generate the main revenue, funding other company projects. He believes low-risk DeFi could similarly support Ethereum, providing income for the development of non-financial and experimental applications, such as social networks or identification systems.

According to Buterin, he was initially skeptical of the decentralized segment due to high risks and a focus on speculation. However, over time, protocols have become safer, and their primary value has become providing global access to payments and savings in stable assets. The Ethereum co-founder believes that for many people worldwide, the risks of the traditional financial system now exceed the potential dangers of “mature DeFi.”

He emphasized that low-risk DeFi aligns with the community’s goals. This sector generates income through fees and the use of Ethereum as collateral, while also performing an important social function—granting people access to financial tools. Unlike Google’s advertising model, which encourages data collection, decentralized finance does not create “perverse incentives” for the layer-one network.

In the future, this sector could become the foundation for more complex products. Among them, Buterin highlighted reputation-based lending and a shift from dollar-pegged stablecoins to other forms of stable assets like flatcoins.

Back in August, the Ethereum co-founder proposed a series of measures to protect the decentralization of the blockchain of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.