Vitalik Buterin: The sign of Ethereum's maturity is that it can keep moving forward without my involvement. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) shared during an interview with Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) at the Network State Conference 2026 on October 9 that being in the spotlight for a long time can be draining. When discussing leadership and succession in Ethereum, he emphasized that decentralization doesn’t mean going from one leader to zero leaders, but rather from one to many. Ethereum is already moving in this direction. Vitalik mentioned that he’s focused on whether the foundation and community members can continue driving Ethereum forward without his participation, while upholding core values like security and privacy. Recently, more and more people have been stepping up to take action without waiting for him to speak first, which he sees as the most critical positive signal. Source: Network State Podcast