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Vitalik: The Real World Needs Blockchains
Vitalik postulates that the crypto industry is on the precipice of achieving new types of real-world adoption.
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Reflecting on his experience at a recent cryptography conference, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin today outlined to X the real world use cases he's seeing served by blockchain technology.
What's the Scoop?
- Public Bulletin Board: According to Vitalik, one of the most popular use cases for blockchains among external developers is the ability to store information in a publicly readable, tamper-resistant format. Cryptography developers can leverage blockchains as public bulletin boards when building systems that require publicly verifiable data, such as secure online voting applications.
- Payments Potential: Many types of applications require payments for various reasons. Vitalik identifies blockchain-based payments as an important tool for developers creating applications who need to prevent spam and receive compensation for their services.
- Smart Contracts: By creating standardized mechanisms that control crypto assets, or smart contracts, is possible to unlock interoperability between applications and enable true DeFi composability. Vitalik notes that cryptographers use smart contracts to issue bounties and create zero-knowledge payment channels.
What's the Take?
With Ethereum Layer 1 gas fees hovering near historic lows and an in-place scaling roadmap designed to keep it that way, Vitalik postulates that the crypto industry is on the precipice of achieving new types of adoption.
I was recently at Real World Crypto (that's crypto as in cryptography) and the associated side events, and one thing that struck me was that it was a clarifying experience in terms of understanding *what blockchains are for*.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 12, 2026
We blockchain people (myself included) often have a…