Vitalik Buterin has urged against “lengthening the feedback distance” between humans and artificial intelligence, a notion he deems detrimental for the future, according to the Ethereum co-founder.
Bro, this is wrong.
Lengthening the feedback distance between humans and AIs is not a good thing for the world.
Today, it means you’re generating slop instead of solving useful problems for people. It’s not even well-optimized for helping people have fun.
Once AI becomes…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 19, 2026
The visionary commented on a post by a developer under the pseudonym Sigil, who described the creation of an AI agent capable of existing independently—earning, self-improving, and replicating itself. Sigil called this approach a precursor to Web 4.0.
“Today, it means you’re generating slop instead of solving truly useful problems for humanity. There’s not even entertainment value,” Buterin wrote.
He added that as artificial intelligence becomes powerful enough to pose a real danger, the risk of an “irreversible anti-human outcome” will increase.
“The purpose of Ethereum is to liberate us, not to create something else that acts on its own while the status [of humans] remains the same or even worsens,” Buterin stated.
The developer emphasized that the main task of the current era is not to “accelerate the exponent even further,” but to choose its direction and avoid falling into “undesirable attractors.”
Buterin also discussed the advantages of the upcoming updates EIP-8141 (based on 7701) and the FOCIL mechanism.
There is also an important synergy between FOCIL and AA (EIP-8141, which is based on 7701):
8141 makes not just smart accounts (including multisig, quantum-resistant signatures, key changes, gas sponsorship) first-class citizens, it also can do the same for privacy protocols… https://t.co/wLCEuq66eI
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 19, 2026
What is EIP-8141?
EIP-8141 is a proposal to make smart accounts full participants in the network, enabling them to send transactions directly and without restrictions.
Advantages:
- native support for multisig wallets;
- quantum-resistant signatures;
- key changes;
- gas sponsorship (third-party fee payments);
- built-in privacy mechanisms.
Thanks to EIP-8141, a wallet becomes programmable at the protocol level, rather than on top of it.
What is FOCIL?
FOCIL (Fork Choice-enforced Inclusion Lists) is a mechanism for the rapid and censorship-resistant inclusion of transactions in a block.
Currently, Ethereum faces a problem: if a proposer (validator—the one who proposes a block) or a builder (Block Builder) refuses to process a transaction, it may get stuck.
FOCIL creates an alternative route. In each slot, not only is a proposer randomly selected, but several “includers” are as well. They are granted the right to integrate a small list of transactions into the blockchain independently of the validator.
This approach:
- reduces the risk of censorship;
- ensures rapid confirmation of operations;
- decreases the influence of individual network participants.
Synergy of FOCIL and AA
According to Buterin, the combination of FOCIL and EIP-8141 (AA) allows any transaction to be added to the blockchain through one of 17 randomly selected proposers or “includers.” This applies to smart wallet operations, privacy protocols, and transactions with sponsored gas.
“This provides guaranteed rapid inclusion—almost certainly within 1-2 slots—even in a hostile environment,” the developer noted.
He added that in the current version, FOCIL is limited to 8 kB. However, the built-in scaling mechanism allows this limit to be increased to accommodate a larger portion of block transactions if necessary.
This system possesses properties of architectures with multiple parallel proposers, yet there is a key difference: FOCIL does not attempt to control the “last look” role—it remains distributed through ePBS auctions.
“The FOCIL design ensures that even if literally 100% of slots are sold to a malicious network participant who refuses to connect to public mempools, discriminates against certain applications, or acts in bad faith, all transactions will still quickly enter the block,” Buterin explained.
He added that this does not eliminate the centralization of the validator role but significantly reduces its impact.
“With EIP-8141 (AA), transactions from smart wallets, privacy protocols, and other similar solutions can be sent through the public mempool and directly accepted by FOCIL. Everything works without wrappers, public relays, or other intermediaries,” the developer concluded.
Earlier, changes occurred in the EF leadership. Tomasz Stanczak stepped down as the foundation’s executive director.
