I saw Buterin post about dependency technology, and it’s worth paying attention because it’s not just a philosophical issue. It’s about the direction Ethereum should take.

It’s a long story, but in short, Buterin doesn’t want Ethereum to compete with Apple or Google in terms of performance and user experience. On the contrary, he wants it to go in the opposite direction—toward what he calls “dependency technology,” which is a tool designed to protect, not to impress.

The point is, if Ethereum follows the same path as big platforms, it will become just like the things it aims to change—convenient for users but ultimately controlled by corporations, benefiting whom? Not the users.

What’s clear is that Buterin isn’t just talking about this; he’s actually taking action. He’s shifting away from major tech platforms to privacy-focused alternatives—switching from Google Docs to Fileverse, a decentralized document platform; from Gmail to Proton Mail; from Telegram to Signal; running AI language models on his own hardware instead of relying on cloud services.

This shift seems to be a signal. He’s building a prototype of what he wants Ethereum to do—allow everyone to make it happen. A digital life where your data and communication truly belong to you, not assets owned by companies.

But here’s where it gets complicated. Some argue that relying on personal hardware has limitations—if the task exceeds what your device can handle, you’re stuck. One proposed solution is pooling unused GPUs from computers around the world. That way, you get both power and independence. But the open question remains: can this really solve the problem, or is it just changing the dependency from one form to another?

Ultimately, the question Buterin raises is: what is Ethereum’s role? Should it refuse to be anything else to repay its debt to users? His answer is clear: Ethereum must provide a space where users’ data truly belongs to them—not just features, but guarantees built into the protocol itself. Everything stems from this point.