Vitalik Buterin Declares DeFi Sector ‘Mature and Secure’

Vitalik Buterin declares DeFi mature and secure for primary banking.

The DeFi sector has reached a level of maturity and security sufficient for use “as a primary bank account,” stated Vitalik Buterin at a Dromos Labs event, reports The Block.

According to him, decentralized finance is becoming “a viable form of savings.” The developer noted a shift in focus from high-risk speculation to more conservative instruments. 

Buterin believes DeFi will become a solution for users seeking protection from the risks of the fiat system, “where your money can be taken away” due to political changes.

He acknowledged the history of protocol hacks and smart contract risks that have plagued the industry, including the recent attack on Balancer. However, Buterin emphasized that security in the field has significantly improved.

“The level of protection expected in 2025 and what was available in 2019 or 2020 are worlds apart,” he said.

As one element of this system, the developer highlighted the so-called “walkaway test,” which ensures users can always retrieve their funds. 

The Ethereum founder also urged developers to adhere to key principles: open-source code, adherence to free standards, and resistance to censorship.

Buterin advised creating applications using L1 as a liquidity hub and L2 for scaling. He added that the latter is improving at both levels thanks to increased gas limits. As an example, Buterin cited the launch of products like Lighter, which has already achieved a throughput of over 10,000 transactions per second.

“With the right approach, such a level of scaling is available to any developer today,” concluded Buterin.

“The Trustless Manifesto”

Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation (EF) have published “The Trustless Manifesto.”

1/ Today, The Account Abstraction Team & @VitalikButerin are publishing something we’ve talked about for years but never wrote down clearly enough:

The Trustless Manifesto.

And we’re putting it where it belongs: onchain.

trustlessmanifesto.eth → https://t.co/VtabFPp5Eo

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) November 13, 2025

In the document, they expressed concern over the increasing centralization of the industry and urged developers to maintain the principle of “trustlessness,” which the authors called a foundation rather than an additional feature. In their view, without this principle, scalability and usability become decorative layers over a fragile foundation.

“Every system starts with good intentions. Over time, gateways become platforms. Platforms become landlords. And landlords decide who can enter and what to do,” the manifesto states.

The authors consider “trustless design,” where fairness depends solely on mathematics and consensus rather than the goodwill of intermediaries, as the only protection against this.

From Decentralization to Convenience

According to the document, the departure from decentralization is already noticeable. The drive to simplify usage leads to compromises that gradually undermine the industry’s foundation.

The manifesto provides several illustrative examples:

• hosted RPC nodes have become the default solution;
• sequencers in many L2 solutions are centralized;
• asset custody is increasingly transferred to centralized exchanges;
• cross-chain solutions “reproduce” the centralization they were meant to combat.

“Decentralization is not destroyed by capture, but by convenience. It automatically and constantly drifts towards reliance on trust,” the authors emphasize.

Rules for Developers

Buterin and EF reminded that protocol creators are “custodians, not gatekeepers.” Their duty is to create open and sovereign systems, “even if it is difficult.”

The manifesto proposes three laws for trustless design:

1. No critical secrets. No step of the protocol should depend on private information held by a single participant.
2. No irreplaceable intermediaries. Any network participant should be replaceable by another following the same rules.
3. No unverifiable results. Every state change should be reproducible and verifiable based on public data.

“If simplicity is achieved at the expense of trust, it is not simplicity. It is surrender,” the authors declared.

An Email Analogy

The document draws an analogy with email. In the past, anyone could run their own mail server. Theoretically, this is still possible, but in practice, spam filters and reputation systems make it nearly impossible for ordinary users.

As a result, email has become “effectively centralized.” The authors of the manifesto warned against repeating this path for Ethereum’s access layer.

In conclusion, they called for measuring success not by the number of TPS, but by “reducing trust per transaction.”

“Ultimately, the world does not need more efficient intermediaries. It needs fewer reasons to trust them,” EF summarized.

Back in September, Buterin stated that the proposed EU “Chat Control” bill threatens citizens’ right to privacy in digital communications.