Low-risk defi can be for Ethereum what search was for Google

Vitalik Buterin argues that low-risk defi can be Ethereum's equivalent to Google's search revenue by resolving the tension between economically sustainable applications and those aligned with Ethereum's core mission.

Ethereum has long faced a disconnect between applications that generate significant revenue versus those that serve meaningful purposes. Historically, revenue came from speculative activities like NFTs and memecoins, while valuable non-financial applications generated minimal fees. This created cultural dissonance within the community, undermining Ethereum's mission-driven goals.

The maturation of low-risk defi protocols now offers a solution. With decreased risk from improved security and regulatory clarity, these applications provide genuine value to underserved global populations while generating substantial economic activity for the ecosystem.

Key advantages of focusing on low-risk defi:

• Economic sustainability: Uses ETH as collateral and generates significant transaction fees
• Cultural alignment: Serves the honorable purpose of democratizing global financial access
• Strategic positioning: Maintains appropriate incentives for L1 development without over-centralization pressures
• Future potential: Creates foundation for reputation-based lending, prediction market hedging, and alternative stable value systems

Unlike Google's advertising model that incentivizes data hoarding, low-risk defi aligns economic success with Ethereum's decentralized, positive-sum values while providing clear pathways for evolution into more sophisticated financial applications.