- Vitalik Buterin says apps reflect ideology as much as code.
- He listed Polymarket as ‘good philosophy’ and Pump.Fun as bad.
- Ethereum’s future could hinge on the intent behind what people build.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is calling for developers to think harder about why they’re building, and says the app layer is where ideology matters most.
“Apps are around 80% special purpose,” Buterin wrote Saturday on Warpcast, a decentralised social media app built on the Farcaster protocol. “What apps you build depends heavily on what ideas you have about what Ethereum is meant to do for the world.”
To make his point, he listed four apps as examples of “good social philosophy” — Railgun, Farcaster, Polymarket, and Signal — and others as “bad,” including Pump.Fun, Terra/Luna, and FTX.
His message is that apps reflect intent as much as they reflect code. And when that intent is misaligned, it can lead to extractive behaviour, misplaced priorities, or systems that serve narrow interests over broader public good.
Few examples embody that more than Pump.Fun, the Solana-based memecoin platform, which Buterin singled out.
Once a novel on-ramp for launching community tokens, it quickly became infamous for its livestreaming chaos.
That feature was pulled late last year after a string of disturbing incidents, including fake suicide attempts, degrading stunts, and one tragic real-life death.
When the livestreams resumed earlier this month, it was with new moderation guidelines, but the damage to the platform’s reputation was already done.
Daily transactions on Pump.Fun have dropped around 70% since January, while trading volumes are down over 85%.
Buterin contrasted that with Polymarket, a decentralised prediction market platform built on Ethereum.
He has long praised such tools as examples of valuable and “credible neutral infrastructure” — systems that promote truth-seeking over hype.
“If you want to use crypto for positive-sum purposes, prediction markets are a pretty good place to start,” he wrote in November.
His comments come at a time when Ethereum itself has been stuck in a rut. With activity stagnating and rival chains gaining steam, some critics say the network has lost its edge.
But Buterin’s post suggests the future won’t be won by infrastructure alone — it’ll depend on what people decide to build with it.
“The growth of the app layer,” he wrote, “is exactly the time that good social philosophy is needed most.”
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.
