Vitalik Dey Call for 'Protocol Simplicity' — Trim Old Features to Keep Ethereum

Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin dey call for deliberate “protocol simplicity”: make dem chop legacy code and complex features from Ethereum core to improve security, auditability and long‑term maintainability. Buterin warn say accumulated complexity fit create “High Priest” wahala where only specialists sabi the whole system, and that one dey undermine decentralization and the “walkaway test” (ability for new teams to take over maintenance). E recommend make dem move rarely‑used or complicated functions out the core protocol into smart contracts (for example use account abstraction to handle legacy transaction types and run the EVM as a contract on a simpler runtime), remove features wey add permanent bloat, and adopt formal “simplification” or “garbage collection” processes. Proposed moves include isolating old clients, running older protocol versions side‑by‑side to reduce client burden, incremental gas‑fee tweaks, and wider design changes (e.g., Lean consensus or past shifts like PoS). Buterin see Ethereum first 15 years as experimental and say the next phase must prioritise clarity, verifiability and fewer invariants so many developers fit audit and rebuild the chain decades from now. For traders, this mean possible future protocol refactors, deprecations and tooling changes wey fit affect client implementations and some smart‑contract behaviours — outcomes wey fit cause short‑term disruption for particular integrations but aim to strengthen long‑term network resilience.