Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he plans to fully recommit to decentralized social media in 2026, arguing that only platforms built on a shared, decentralized data layer can foster true competition and support mass communication systems tailored to user interests rather than engagement metrics.
In a Wednesday post about X, Buterin said he has shifted his activities to decentralized social platforms this year, noting that all posts he wrote or read in 2026 were accessed through Firefly, a multi-client interface that supports X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky.
“If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” Buterin said, arguing that decentralization enables competition by allowing multiple clients to operate on a shared social data layer.
sauce: Vitalik Buterin
Buterin criticized many crypto-native social projects for relying on speculative tokens instead of meaningful innovation, arguing that SocialFi experiments have repeatedly failed by rewarding existing social capital and short-term price speculation rather than quality content or constructive debate.
He contrasted these efforts with creator subscription models such as Substack, saying they can better align incentives around high-quality content.
Calling for broader community engagement, Buterin urged users and builders to spend more time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the industry needs to move beyond a single, centralized “information war zone” toward a more competitive frontier where new forms of online interaction can emerge.
Current state of decentralized social media
Decentralized social media (SocialFi) refers to platforms built on open or blockchain-based networks where user identities, content, and social graphs are not controlled by a single company. While protocols like Lens and Farcaster have gained early momentum, the space has so far struggled to translate that momentum into sustained mass-market adoption.
On Wednesday, core infrastructure provider Neynar acquired Farcaster from Merkle. Announcing the news, Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero said, “After five years, it is clear that Farcaster needs a new approach and leadership to reach its full potential.”
Lens also made a leadership change this week, with Aave transferring management responsibility for its open-source social protocols to Mask Network and directing the Web3 social company to evolve its consumer-facing on-chain social applications.
Farcaster features more than 2 million total registered users and hundreds of thousands of daily interactions measured by posts and reactions. According to data from Dune Analytics, Lens has accumulated approximately 506,000 users.
sauce: dune analysis
sauce: dune analysis
