On December 30, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a thought-provoking essay titled "Balance of Power" on his personal blog, warning that the greatest threat to humanity's future lies not in advanced technologies themselves, but in the excessive concentration of power they enable.
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Buterin identifies three primary forces that societies both desire and fear: Big Government (states with monopoly on violence), Big Business (large corporations driven by profit), and Big Mob (populist mass movements or unified crowds). Each can deliver immense benefits — order and public services from governments, innovation and efficiency from businesses, and civic engagement from social movements — but turns dangerous when one dominates.
Historically, balance emerged naturally due to "diseconomies of scale": large entities were slow, inefficient, and hard to coordinate. Distance, communication delays, and practical limits prevented any single actor from growing unchecked. Today, however, automation, proprietary platforms, and digital networks have flipped this dynamic.
Technologies reduce coordination costs, enabling "winner-takes-all" effects where small advantages compound exponentially. As Buterin notes, this creates a "dense jungle" of power, where progress accelerates but risks hegemony soar.
The essay critiques how each force can go awry:
- Big Government risks arbitrary enforcement, speech restrictions (e.g., in China or recent UK cases), or wars.
- Big Business can diverge from societal good (e.g., cryptocurrencies increasingly allocating rewards to insiders, or video games shifting toward gambling-like mechanics) and homogenize culture through scale.
- Big Mob threatens pluralism, turning diverse civil society into unified, leader-driven agendas (e.g., historical revolutions or modern cancel culture).
Buterin contrasts Silicon Valley's 2013 ethos of "exit" (building alternatives outside government) with 2025's trend toward alignment with state power, lamenting the merger of two forces that should check each other.
The solution, he argues, is not to dismantle powerful entities — progress requires them — but to mandate diffusion.
This means spreading control (not just ideas) through open standards, interoperability, and mechanisms like:
- Adversarial interoperability (building tools that connect to dominant platforms without permission, e.g., third-party clients or Sci-Hub for research).
- Policies forcing openness (e.g., EU's USB-C mandate or copyleft licenses).
- Pluralistic structures, such as open-source communities or decentralized protocols.
In crypto, Buterin highlights Ethereum's liquid staking protocol Lido: despite holding ~24% of staked ETH, its DAO governance, veto rights, and internal checks make it less threatening than a centralized equivalent.
Reactions poured in quickly. Crypto media like Blockonomi called it a "blueprint for avoiding systemic collapse," emphasizing adversarial interoperability.
BanklessTimes noted Buterin's plea for proactive balance before crises force resets. French outlet Actu Crypto described it as a "manifesto against the state," highlighting tech elites' shift toward government ties.
Buterin's core morality: Embrace "power to" (impact and empowerment) over "power over" (hegemony).
In a world of accelerating scale, deliberate pluralism — via open tech and decentralized acceleration (d/acc) — is essential to harness progress without surrendering to dominance.
As 2026 begins, this essay serves as a timely reminder: True innovation thrives in balanced ecosystems, not monopolized ones.
Also read:
- The Race for AI Compute: Epoch AI's Tracker Reveals Shifting Power Dynamics in Data Centers
- Ethereum's Ambitious 2026 Roadmap: Glamsterdam and Hegota Upgrades Signal Accelerated Development
- Streaming Hits Prime Time: 2025 Marks the Year of Profitability and Bold Moves
Thank you!
