Vitalik Buterin Says His Influence Decreases As Merge Nears

Vitalik Buterin says that his influence over the Ethereum network decreases as Merge nears. He stated that his control over the network has dwindled over the last two years as many new engineers have taken on numerous positions.

Buterin stated in an interview with economics blogger Noah Smith that he has long desired for Ethereum to evolve into an environment “where my influence may reduce simply because so many other fantastic voices begin to flourish and express themselves.”

“In 2015, I was basically doing 80% of the ‘research’ in Ethereum, and I was even doing a large chunk of the Python coding. In 2017, I was doing much less of the coding, and maybe 70% of the research. By 2020, I was doing perhaps only a third of the research, and very little coding. But I was still doing most of the ‘high-level theorizing’. But over the last two years, even the high-level theorizing is something that has been slowly but surely slipping away from me,” he was quoted as saying.

According to him, young ETH researchers like Polynya are progressively assuming a large share of thought leadership in Ethereum scaling solutions.

“People like [barryWhiteHat] and Brian Gu have taken the mantle of zero-knowledge proof technology, and Justin and Dankrad, originally hired as researchers, have been asserting themselves more and more as thought leaders too,” according to Vitalik Buterin.

While the programmer did not specify which projects he is presently working on, he did highlight his most recent hobbies and inspirations.

“On the further-from-crypto science front, the progress in biotech and AI has been amazing – in the latter case, some might say, perhaps a little too amazing. We’re starting to understand what both the politics and the technology of the 21st century is going to look like, and how each of the pieces of what we’re working on are going to fit into the picture,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, as previously reported, Buterin is due to publish Proof of Stake, a compilation of his writings over the last ten years, as both a physical and digital book on September 27th, joining the race for this year’s crypto-related best-seller.

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