Vitalik Calls for Ethereum to Shift Toward "Sanctuary Technology" to Combat Surveillance and Centralization Threats

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently explicitly stated that the Ethereum development community should move beyond a focus on financial applications and instead build what he calls “Sanctuary Technologies”—open, decentralized infrastructure that protects individuals from excessive government and corporate surveillance. He also emphasized that Ethereum’s true mission is to promote “de-totalization,” rather than becoming a tech giant driven by efficiency and market scale.

Sanctuary Technologies: Vitalik’s Reframing of Ethereum’s Mission

Vitalik’s core argument distinguishes two very different technological development paths. He criticizes the current crypto space’s overemphasis on financial applications and market speculation, pointing out that Ethereum, in addressing global issues, is essentially a “misformed tool”—directly fixing global problems requires strong power projection, which contradicts the essence of decentralized communities.

His alternative vision is “de-totalization”: using technical means to limit any single government, corporation, or dominant actor from gaining absolute control over digital life, reducing the risk of winners dominating and losers being completely destroyed in the “digital battlefield.” Ethereum’s role should be to create a shared digital space that does not rely on centralized authorities, providing payment networks, collective governance structures, and cross-organizational collaboration platforms, rather than reshaping the world in its own image.

Concrete Technical Proposals: PBS, FOCIL, and Encryption to Enhance Neutrality

Beyond philosophical repositioning, Vitalik is actively promoting upgrades to Ethereum’s underlying technology, focusing on neutrality and fairness in block construction. He points out that a small number of dominant block builders pose structural risks of transaction censorship or user exploitation, and that pure market competition alone cannot eliminate these issues.

Three Major Technical Directions

PBS (Proposer-Builder Separation): The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade will officially introduce the PBS mechanism, separating the powers of proposing and building blocks to reduce the risk of a single node monopolizing transaction ordering.

FOCIL (Forced Inclusion Mechanism): A censorship-resistant fallback plan that randomly selects participants to force certain transactions into the next block, weakening the ability of a few builders to censor or exclude specific transactions.

Transaction Encryption: Hiding transaction contents before final confirmation to prevent speculators from conducting MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) sandwich attacks or front-running, protecting ordinary users from malicious arbitrage.

Vision for Liberating Infrastructure and Ethical Boundaries in AI

Vitalik suggests developers build a complete infrastructure stack, extending from wallets and applications at the top down to operating systems, hardware, and underlying security mechanisms. He cites existing examples of “liberating infrastructure,” including Starlink satellite networks, localized open-source AI models, encrypted messaging app Signal, and community fact-checking systems like Community Notes.

On AI regulation, Vitalik highlights the dispute between Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), supporting Anthropic’s firm stance on two core red lines: refusing to develop fully autonomous weapons and rejecting mass surveillance of citizens. He advocates that, ideally, military use of AI should be the same as for ordinary people—limited to open-source models, not granted special licenses. This stance aligns with Ethereum’s “de-totalization” mission: technology should not reinforce existing power concentrations but serve as a safeguard for individual autonomy and decentralized organizations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the concept of “Sanctuary Technologies” proposed by Vitalik?
“Sanctuary Technologies” is Vitalik Buterin’s new framing for Ethereum’s mission, referring to open, decentralized infrastructure that protects users from excessive government or corporate surveillance. It includes privacy protections, anti-censorship mechanisms, and collaboration platforms that do not rely on centralized authorities, contrasting with the profit-driven tech giants.

Q: How does FOCIL prevent transaction censorship on Ethereum?
FOCIL (Forced Inclusion Mechanism) is Vitalik’s proposed anti-censorship technology, which randomly selects validators to force certain transactions into the next block, limiting the ability of dominant block builders to censor or exclude specific transactions, thereby ensuring Ethereum’s neutrality and resistance to censorship.

Q: Why does Vitalik support Anthropic’s refusal to comply with U.S. Department of Defense requests?
Vitalik believes AI should not be a tool for monopolizing power. He supports Anthropic’s stance on two red lines: banning fully autonomous weapons and preventing mass citizen surveillance. This aligns with his “de-totalization” philosophy: technology should serve individuals and open communities, not reinforce existing power structures.