According to @VitalikButerin, protocol simplicity is a critical and underrated pillar of trustlessness, the walkaway test, and self-sovereignty in crypto systems (source: @VitalikButerin, Jan 18, 2026 tweet). According to @VitalikButerin, even a super-decentralized network with hundreds of thousands of nodes and 49% Byzantine fault tolerance can still fall short of practical trustlessness if complexity becomes a barrier (source: @VitalikButerin, Jan 18, 2026 tweet). According to @VitalikButerin, this emphasis on simplicity provides a trading lens to prioritize verifiability and broad node participation when assessing Layer-1s, Layer-2s, and DeFi protocol risk profiles (source: @VitalikButerin, Jan 18, 2026 tweet).