Ethereum (ETH) co‑founder Vitalik Buterin said that “low‑risk DeFi” applications could become a cornerstone of the Ethereum ecosystem. He said this could play a similar role to Google’s search engine, which is its primary source of revenue.
Buterin noted that DeFi protocols have become more secure in recent years, establishing a stable core, and that low‑risk DeFi (payments, savings, synthetic assets, collateralized lending), in particular, can sustainably support Ethereum. According to Buterin, this space could evolve into innovative solutions like reputation‑based lending, prediction markets, and “flatcoins” that could increase global financial inclusion.
Buterin said one of the biggest tensions within the Ethereum community is the gap between applications that “economically sustain the ecosystem” and those that “serve the philosophical and cultural goals of ETH.” He explained that NFTs, memecoins, and highly speculative DeFi platforms provide short‑term revenue, but in the long term, Ethereum needs sustainable core applications for a $500 billion economy.
“It is possible to have low‑risk DeFi for Ethereum like Google has search,” Buterin said, adding that applications in this area both contribute economically and are compatible with ETH’s vision of “global, transparent, and permissionless financial access.”
Buterin also highlighted the increasing risks in the traditional financial system and argued that a maturing DeFi ecosystem could become as stable as, or even more stable than, traditional finance in the long run, thanks to transparency and automation.
*This is not investment advice.