Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Ships 3 Zero-Knowledge Prototypes on Aztec

Ethereum News

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released a small anonymous billboard demo built with zero-knowledge proofs, then used the launch to joke about why he keeps choosing side projects over promoting ETH. The prototype runs on Aztec, a privacy-focused network anchored to Ethereum’s underlying cryptography. Buterin described the effort as vibe coded — he specified the intended behavior in plain language and let AI tools generate much of the code. The demo lets anyone post to a shared board anonymously while a moderation layer can still block rule violations without ever learning who posted what. Buterin explained the build himself in the thread that opened the conversation.

The concept traces back to a 2022 essay in which Buterin sketched an anonymous message board paired with moderation that never learns a poster’s identity. He has returned to that privacy theme repeatedly. Earlier this month he warned that the revival of the EU’s Chat Control proposal — which would mandate scanning of private messages for illegal content — threatens everyday cybersecurity, arguing privacy tools need stronger protection rather than tighter restrictions. The billboard is a concrete expression of that stance, and it slots into his broader Lean Ethereum roadmap, which leans on similar cryptographic building blocks to keep the network private and verifiable as it scales.

The public repository, named aztec_experiments, contains three working prototypes: a token contract, a voting oracle, and the billboard itself. The board relies on cryptographic nullifiers — one-time markers built with a hashing scheme called poseidon2 — that confirm a poster’s right to publish while blocking double-posting, all without exposing an identity. A private post function checks eligibility against a linked token contract before anything reaches the chain. That design keeps verification on-device and settlement minimal, a pattern that appeals to builders experimenting with privacy-preserving apps. For an altcoin ecosystem still defining its privacy stack, the code offers a compact reference implementation.

The project also showcases what Buterin calls vibe coding — a workflow where a developer describes intended behavior in natural language and lets AI tooling produce most of the implementation. The term was popularized by Andrej Karpathy, who recently joined Anthropic. Buterin’s use of it signals how quickly AI-assisted development is reaching even the most technical corners of the ecosystem, where correctness and cryptographic soundness are non-negotiable. Rather than shipping a polished product, he framed the release as an experiment, publishing the code openly so others can inspect, fork, and extend the nullifier logic. The approach mirrors his long-standing preference for open research over marketing.

The release fits a familiar pattern. Buterin spent much of 2026 on projects unrelated to Ethereum’s price, including an anonymous authorship challenge that outside researchers eventually cracked and early chapters of a novel about decentralized governance. The billboard’s own demo post carried the joke directly, asking why he is always building fun things instead of pumping his own coin. The timing sharpened it: ETH has traded well below its previous cycle highs this year and far from any all-time high, a reminder of how a prolonged bear market has weighed on the asset even as Wall Street’s bull case has drawn more attention than any single experiment.

That detachment has drawn commentary from industry figures. Galaxy Digital chief executive Mike Novogratz recently said Buterin deserves a crypto hero award, crediting his vision and technical leadership for Ethereum reaching its current position. Yet Novogratz paired the praise with a warning: Buterin’s reduced day-to-day visibility over the past two years has, in his view, hurt the ecosystem, and more active, public-facing leadership would benefit the community and the network’s development. Buterin has gradually stepped back from daily development and public statements since around 2024, a move some read as an effort to let Ethereum become more self-sufficient and decentralized rather than founder-dependent.

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