Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said he will fully return to decentralized social media platforms in 2026, and his words are timely now that the two biggest players in the space – Farcaster and Lens Protocol – have changed hands.
In an
“We need mass communication tools that serve the long-term interests of the user, not maximizing short-term engagement,” Buterin said. “There is no simple trick that will solve these problems. But there is one key place to start: more competition.”
In 2026, I plan to fully return to decentralized social.
If we want a better society, we need better means of mass communication. We need mass communication tools that bring out the best information and arguments and help people find areas of agreement. We need mass communication… https://t.co/ye249HsojJ
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 21, 2026
“Decentralization is the way to make that possible: a shared data layer, on which anyone can build their own client,” he added.
Buterin’s comments came after Lens Protocol, the social platform built by the development team behind the Ethereum DeFi protocol Aave, announced on Tuesday that Mask Network would “lead the next chapter” for the decentralized protocol.
On Wednesday, Farcaster made a similar announcement, detailing that its smart protocol contracts, code, the Farcaster app and acquired token launch platform, Clanker, will all be transferred to Neynar, a long-standing Farcaster customer and infrastructure company.
“This was not an easy decision. Farcaster and the people who build on it mean a lot to us,” posted Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero on X. “We are proud of what our team has built and what the community alongside us has built. But after five years, it is clear that Farcaster needs a new approach and leadership to reach its full potential.”
That new approach comes less than two years after the platform raised $150 million in a Series A campaign valued the company at $1 billion and sought to expand its active user base and developer primitives. The Farcaster team recently said that the focus would shift to portfolio development after the social-first approach failed to maintain momentum.
While neither platform currently has its own token, Buterin claims that most social crypto projects have incorporated something speculative and consider it innovative.
“Too often in the crypto world, we think that putting a speculative coin into something counts as ‘innovating’ and moving the world forward,” he wrote. However, he believes the real focus should be on solving the actual social aspect of social media.
“Decentralized social must be led by people who believe deeply in the ‘social’ part, and who are primarily motivated by solving the social problems,” Buterin added.
For Lens’ new leaders, this means a focus on “consumer execution, product design and global distribution.” For Farcaster, it’s a new “builder-centric vision” that is expected to be shared soon. In both cases, the original teams will step away from day-to-day operations.