Vitalik Buterin Champions Computing Self-Sovereignty for 202

Vitalik Buterin has declared 2026 as the year of “computing self-sovereignty,” focusing on reducing reliance on centralized services. In a recent post, he highlighted his shift to decentralized and open-source applications like Fileverse for encrypted documents and messaging apps such as Signal, Simplex, and Session. Looking ahead, he plans to adopt OpenStreetMap, Protonmail, and decentralized social platforms to enhance privacy.

Buterin also addressed the deployment of large language models (LLMs), proposing the integration of technologies like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to achieve efficient and privacy-preserving computation. This approach aims to tackle the challenges of local LLM deployment while maintaining data privacy.