Vitalik Buterin claims corposlop is a growing pandemic that needs to end

Vitalik Buterin recently called out the dangers of what he has tagged “corposlop” in the crypto and digital space. He described it as a toxic mix that leads to the creation of products that at first glance seem user-oriented, but in truth are created to disempower people. 

Buterin’s post was a direct response to a tweet from a pseudonymous X user who made several predictions about what would happen to human society between 2026 and the year 2030. There were quite a number of predictions, including about how “the internet officially splinters” and how “after a year of AI-slop, the low-fi aesthetic wins.” 

Buterin claimed to agree with 60% of the predictions, but one bit he felt he needed to highlight is the “explicit separation between what the poster called ‘the open web’ (really, the corposlop web), and ‘the sovereign web.’”

He called it a distinction he had not realized until recently, acknowledging that BTC maxis were far ahead because it turns out that their resistance to ICOs, disinterest in tokens besides Bitcoin, and arbitrary apps has actually been about keeping Bitcoin “sovereign” and not “corposlop.”

“The big error that many of them made was trying to achieve this goal with either government crackdowns or user disempowerment (keeping bitcoin script limited, and rejecting many categories of applications entirely),” Buterin wrote. “But their fear was real.”

What is corposlop according to Buterin? 

As far as the Ethereum co-founder is concerned, corposlop is made up of three components, including “corporate optimisation power, an aura of respectableness of being a company with sleek polished branding, and behavior that is the exact opposite of respectable, because that’s what’s needed to maximize profit.” 

He gave examples that he believes confirm how soulless corposlop, tagging them both lame and evil as they disempower the average user while making it seem like they’re serving them. Apple came up in the discussion, with Buterin acknowledging he has qualms with the company but admitting that the firm has many “non-corposlop traits.”

“They serve users not by constantly asking ‘what do users want this quarter’, but by having an opinionated long-term vision,” he wrote. “They have a strong emphasis on privacy. They resist and create trends rather than following them. I just wish they could take the brave step of ending their monopolistic practices and switching to an open-source-first strategy. It may damage their market cap, but man must live for something higher than market caps.”

How do you resist corposlop?

According to Vitalik Buterin, in the year 2000, sovereignty was largely focused on avoiding the “iron fist of government.” However, today, that has expanded also to cover securing your digital privacy through cryptography, as well as protecting your mind from corporate mind warfare focused on extracting attention and dollars. 

“It also means doing things because you believe in them, and declaring independence from the homogenizing and soul-sucking concept of ‘the meta,’” Buterin wrote, claiming builders needed to focus more on creating tools that helped achieve or encourage that.  

As reported by Cryptopolitan yesterday, a16z crypto executives advised crypto projects to resist falling victim to the mind virus that has gripped the meta, where everyone is building trading apps. They warned against the upcoming “homogeneous competition” that the proliferation of trading platforms will inevitably lead to.

Buterin mentioned some tools he believes will help and become highly sought after in the future, including: 

• privacy-preserving local-first applications that minimize dependence on and data leaks to third parties
• social media platforms, and tools that let the user control what content they see and appeal to people’s long-term goals
• financial tools that help users grow their wealth, without encouraging 50x leverage, sports betting or taking out a loan
• AI tools that are maximally open, private and that maximize productivity from merging the power of human and bot
• applications, companies and physical environments with opinionated views on the kind of world they want to see
• DAOs that can support organizations and communities that steadfastly pursue a unique objective, as long as they are not all captured by the same groups 

“Be sovereign,” he concluded. “Reject corposlop. Believe in somETHing.”

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.