Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has declared his intention to refocus on decentralized social media in 2026, contending that only platforms established on shared, decentralized data frameworks can promote genuine competition and create mass communication systems that prioritize user interests over engagement metrics.
In a recent post on X, Buterin mentioned that he has been dedicating his activities to decentralized social platforms throughout this year, highlighting that all posts he has engaged with in 2026 have been accessed via Firefly, a multi-client interface that accommodates X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky.
“If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” Buterin emphasized, pointing out that decentralization facilitates competition by allowing various clients to work on a shared social data layer.
Buterin criticized numerous crypto-focused social initiatives for depending on speculative tokens instead of genuine innovation, stating that SocialFi efforts have often failed by emphasizing existing social capital and short-term price speculation over content quality and constructive discussion.
He drew a comparison between these initiatives and creator-subscription models like Substack, which he believes better fosters high-quality content.
Buterin called for an increase in community involvement, urging users and developers to immerse themselves more in decentralized social ecosystems, as the industry needs to transition away from a singular, centralized “info warzone” towards a diversified competitive frontier that allows for new online interaction models to flourish.
The Current Landscape of Decentralized Social Media
Decentralized social media, or SocialFi, pertains to platforms operating on open or blockchain-based networks where user identities, content, and social graphs are not monopolized by a single entity. Despite gaining initial traction, the sector still struggles to achieve sustained broad market adoption.
Recently, core infrastructure provider Neynar acquired Farcaster from Merkle. Co-founder Dan Romero announced the news, stating that “after five years, it’s clear Farcaster needs a new approach and leadership to reach its full potential.”
Lens has also gone through a leadership transition this week, as Aave passed stewardship of the open-source social protocol to Mask Network, tasking the Web3 social enterprise with developing consumer-ready, on-chain social applications.
As for user engagement, Farcaster boasts over two million registered users, while Lens has approximately 506,000 users according to data from Dune Analytics.
