From "Global Computer/Settlement Layer" to "Bulletin Board": What Do Ethereum and Vitalik Want to Do?

In many people’s traditional understanding, Ethereum’s core positioning has always been as a “world computer” or “global settlement layer.”

Over the past decade, it has indeed been responsible for executing smart contracts, supporting DeFi, and hosting NFTs, essentially becoming a programmable layer for financial and application execution.

But on March 12, Vitalik Buterin proposed a rather refreshing perspective — the crypto industry may have overcomplicated the actual use cases of blockchain. Ethereum’s most fundamental value might not be the smart contract functionality we have emphasized, but rather an extremely simple primitive:

A cryptographically secure, globally shared “public bulletin board.”

Many users might wonder: from “computer” to “bulletin board,” is this a regression in functionality, or are there other considerations?

1. The “Global Shared Memory” Behind the “Bulletin Board”

A “public bulletin board,” as the name suggests, centers on data availability.

It’s easy to understand: imagine a giant notice board posted in the city square, accessible to anyone, unremovable, unreviewed, with no censorship. This refers to a global concept: a worldwide bulletin board where users can confirm data exists—no matter how powerful a government is, it cannot erase it, and no administrator can prevent you from posting compliant content.

Ultimately, many current digital systems—such as secure online voting, software version control—don’t require complex financial transactions but need an uncensorable, publicly verifiable data publishing space. This is precisely the “bulletin board” long sought in cryptography:

• Secure voting systems. Traditional electronic voting relies on centralized databases, which are vulnerable to tampering. Publishing voting records on Ethereum allows anyone to verify results, with voter privacy protected by cryptography.

• Certificate revocation systems. Revocation lists for HTTPS certificates and software signing certificates need a publicly accessible, tamper-proof data source. Blockchain is naturally suited for this role.

• Multi-party coordination and governance. Open-source projects, decentralized governance, community funds—these scenarios require multiple parties to collaborate without mutual trust. Ethereum can serve as a neutral layer to publish data and verify actions.

These scenarios share a common feature: they don’t require Ethereum to “run” anything, only to “remember” something. Vitalik thus offers a more precise ultimate definition: Ethereum is a “global shared memory.”

Anyone can write, anyone can read, and no one can unilaterally erase it—neither a company, nor a government, nor Vitalik himself.

This positioning aligns with a clear technical path: the 2024 EIP-4844 (Blob Data) is an initial expansion of this bulletin board, and the full implementation of PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) in 2026 will enlarge its “area” a hundredfold. Ethereum will no longer obsess over main chain TPS but aim to become the largest, safest data storage center in the world—a foundational layer providing global shared data availability.

2. AI Arrives, Making the Public Bulletin Board Even More Necessary

Understanding the essence of the “bulletin board,” we see that the arrival of AI isn’t two separate things but two sides of the same coin.

Objectively, the concept of a “bulletin board” is closely related to the impact AI has on Web3 today. More and more, people are interacting with AI daily more than with any human. But current AI services tie your questions, timing, and frequency directly to your real identity.

For example, using ChatGPT requires an email and credit card; calling Claude API leaves clear billing records, with every prompt a digital trace pointing back to you.

Therefore, Vitalik and Davide Crapis, head of AI at the Ethereum Foundation, jointly proposed in February 2026 the ZK API Usage Credits plan, aiming to enable anonymous calls to large AI models via zero-knowledge proofs. The logic is straightforward:

• Users deposit funds (e.g., 100 USDC) into a smart contract, which records this encrypted deposit on-chain.
• Subsequent API calls to AI do not reveal identity; users only generate a zero-knowledge proof demonstrating “I have the right to use this quota” to complete the call.

What does this require? A public bulletin board—a transparent, verifiable, tamper-proof data layer to record “who has how much quota,” without recording “who is who.”

Meanwhile, the proliferation of AI Agents introduces another new problem: how do these autonomous programs coordinate economically? When one AI Agent needs to invoke another’s service, it must pay, build reputation, and handle disputes. But it has no bank account, no legal identity, and no trusted “real-name” info.

Ethereum, as an economic coordination layer for AI Agents, offers a natural solution: Agents can initiate transactions, stake collateral, and establish verifiable reputation records—all built on the transparent data layer provided by the “bulletin board.”

In a broader sense, this relationship between Ethereum and AI is even converging— as AI capabilities grow stronger, the needs for privacy, verifiability, and decentralization become more rigid.

Thus, Ethereum isn’t competing with AI but aims to be the most essential infrastructure in the AI era—a public data layer anyone can write to, trust, and no one can shut down.

3. Is the “Smart Contract” Narrative No Longer Enough?

Perhaps in Vitalik Buterin’s vision, future Ethereum users might mostly be AI Agents rather than humans.

So, this shift from “world computer” to “bulletin board” might be misunderstood as lowering expectations, but in fact, it’s the opposite.

“World computer” is a narrative from an internal perspective—asking “what can our technology do.” The “bulletin board” is an external perspective—asking “what does the world truly need.”

This may also be influenced by Vitalik’s encounters at cryptography conferences with researchers working on voting systems, certificate protocols, and privacy tools—people who have little interest in blockchain or Ethereum but need what Ethereum can provide.

Therefore, I believe Ethereum is gradually becoming more pragmatic, which is the mature stance of technology: no longer trying to define specific applications but refining itself into a reliable foundational infrastructure, waiting for the right scenarios to naturally emerge.

Just like TCP/IP doesn’t explain what the internet can do, but without TCP/IP, the internet can’t do anything.

From this perspective, Ethereum’s current approach might be seen as “acting when unable, seeking within oneself.”

After all, the core, irreplaceable value of blockchain is the unalterable truth it holds. No matter how fast AI evolves or how blurred the line between reality and virtuality becomes, as long as this “bulletin board” exists, humanity has a place to store “truth.”

Perhaps this is Ethereum’s most honest self-positioning.