Vitalik Buterin
Co-founder of Ethereum. Publishes long essays on mechanism design, governance and what cryptography is for, and returns to his earlier positions to say which parts he no longer holds.
Vitalik Buterin did not write this page. We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it.
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21 Aug 2026
Our framing
Their wordsThis is a wild and risky bet; it sits on a graveyard of failed attempts at white-box cryptography .
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21 Aug 2026
Our framing
Their wordsA big-enough random reversible circuit is plausibly a secure cryptographic permutation, a big-enough random irreversible circuit degenerates into having only a few possible outputs.
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21 Aug 2026
Our framing
Their wordsBut, so far, mixing has not proved to be good enough. There ended up being too many correlations between values in \(C\) and values in the obfuscation that remained.
- 8 weeks earlier
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29 Jun 2026
Our framing
Obfuscation is the most powerful primitive yet conceived in cryptography.
Their wordsThe most powerful primitive that has been conceived in cryptography is obfuscation
↗Obfuscation: building the final boss of cryptography (Part I)vitalik.eth.limo
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29 Jun 2026
Our framing
Building a secure obfuscation protocol is extremely difficult.
Their wordsit turns out that making a secure form of obfuscation is really really hard
↗Obfuscation: building the final boss of cryptography (Part I)vitalik.eth.limo
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29 Jun 2026
Our framing
Their wordsBut within the good news, there is bad news: the run time is literally galactic
↗Obfuscation: building the final boss of cryptography (Part I)vitalik.eth.limo