Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has updated its demand for stronger privacy protection across emerging crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
In a blog post on April 14th, Buterin argued that privacy is not just a personal right, but a key guardian of decentralization, innovation and freedom.
He wrote:
“To support privacy for everyone and make the tools they need open source, making it universal, reliable, safe and secure, is one of the key challenges of our time.”
Buterin emphasized that privacy allows us to act freely, whether government, platform or algorithm, without always guessing second-most whether others may judge or respond.
He further explained that he believes privacy is essential to supporting systems of society that rely on confidentiality to function properly.
Furthermore, better tools for controlling information sharing allow privacy to unlock new opportunities for technological and social advancements.
He concluded:
“Privacy can no longer be ignored.”
The growing role of AI in centralizing data
Buterin emphasized that centralization often stems from information control.
In his view, anyone who owns the data ultimately wields his strength. This imbalance threatens the fundamental ideals of blockchain and other decentralized systems.
While ownership of data generally focuses on censorship or platforms, Buterin warned of deeper issues arising from AI-driven systems.
According to him, AI is accelerating the centralization of data collection and analytics. This problem is exacerbated by the increase in the personal information that individuals share online, and sometimes unwittingly.
As technologies like the brain computer interface developed, Butaline warned that future privacy invasions could include thoughts and intentions beyond metadata.
He said:
“In the near future, we'll see people making AI products that will bring deeper privacy intrusions. Passively collect internet browsing patterns, email and chat history, biometric data, and more. In theory, the data will remain private to you. In reality, this doesn't seem to always be the case.”
Buterin acknowledged that even centralisation of goodwill can lead to instability. Governments or businesses may misuse or sell sensitive data, and systems designed to be safe are always vulnerable to internal abuse and external attacks.
He also warned that changes in the political system could change the way data is processed overnight.
However, he pointed out that modern cryptographic tools offer new hope to counter these events. Techniques such as Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK-snarks), Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), and obfuscation techniques allow users to protect their data without sacrificing functionality or trust.
For example, ZK-snarks allows individuals to prove credibility without revealing their identity, while FHE enables data calculations without revealing actual data.
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