Vitalik Buterin: Blockchains will shift to a two-layer model

Vitalik Buterin explained his vision of future blockchains, operating with two layers for scalability. The two layers will have different incentives to avoid unfair advantages.

Vitalik Buterin explained that the future of on-chain mechanisms may have a general two-layer structure. One layer would work as a market, which is open, and anyone can trade or make predictions. The layer incentivizes decisions with earnings, similar to a prediction market. 

The second layer would be decentralized, maximizing for intrinsic motivation and support. The base layer will not be token-based to avoid a 51% attack by buying a large stake. In the case of voting, it would be anonymous to avoid collusion. 

Buterin reopened the issue of governance, just as other DAOs and decentralized platforms are rethinking the fairness and efficiency of voting, as well as incentives and voter influence. 

A day earlier, Buterin suggested a mechanism to run an on-chain social media, which does not decay due to popularity games. Previously, projects like Steem implemented a double-layer structure, but it devolved into early whale owners and bot-driven popularity contests for content. 

Vitalik Buterin shifts attention to creator coins

Vitalik Buterin recently mentioned the potential to create a successful creator coin market. He remarked that the past decade has seen multiple attempts to incentivize content creation with crypto, with projects like Steemit and BitClout, and more recently, Zora. The tipping model has also been tried inside decentralized social media. Creator tokens also had a revival in the past few months, bringing a new wave of collections and more active trading. 

Buterin warned that the problem remains hard, as creator incentives do not address the real issue of not having enough content. The problem of content can be filled by AI agents, but quality is still a bottleneck. Buterin believes the real incentives may go toward selecting and curating good content, rather than just content generation.

The Substack model is the closest to ensuring quality content, rather than just tokenizing fame, stated Buterin. Tokenizing content may come in the form of predictions and bets on real content leaderboards, rather than a closed game of token-based speculation. Correct predictions for quality content will be rewarded in a way that cannot be gamed by influence. 

Can Ethereum retain a voting community?

Buterin’s vision of Ethereum as a hub for social media activity still requires a real community with robust engagement. 

Ethereum recently posted near-peak daily active wallet counts. However, most of the Ethereum activity is financial, linked to stablecoins or DeFi smart contracts. Ethereum-based social media or creator coins are a small fraction of overall activity. 

Additionally, ETH dipped under $2,300, once again undermining some of the confidence in the project. After the latest market downturn, ETH once again showed the mismatch between the plans for Ethereum growth and the real performance of its native token.

Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.