Vitalik: The relationship between "institutions" and "cypherpunks" needs to be properly understood, and an open attitude should be maintained towards mutually beneficial cooperation.

Foresight News reports that Vitalik posted on Farcaster discussing the complex relationship between “institutions” and “cypherpunks.” He stated that institutions (including governments and corporations) are neither friends nor enemies. Vitalik cited examples such as the EU actively supporting open-source software on one hand, and pushing for chat control (mandatory encryption backdoors) on the other; the US government through the Patriot Act, while also using Signal.

Vitalik believes that the optimal game theory strategy for institutions is to control their own manageable domains while resisting interference from others. He predicts that in the next era, institutions will be more proactive in reducing reliance on external trust. In the stablecoin sector, this means asset issuers hope that the governance focus of the chain does not overly favor a single country, while governments will promote more KYC processes, but privacy tools will also continue to improve. Vitalik emphasizes that Ethereum is a censorship-resistant global computer. Cypherpunks do not need to hold complete hostility towards institutions but should adopt a strategy of “being open to mutually beneficial cooperation while actively defending their own interests.” The core goal is to build financial, social, and identity layers that protect people’s autonomy and freedom.