Quick Takeaways
- Vitalik Buterin believes closed systems are eroding trust in healthcare, finance, and voting.
- Open source infrastructure offers a transparent, verifiable alternative.
- It’s not just about better tech, it’s about building systems people can believe in.
Why Open Source Infrastructure Should Matter to Everyone
Let’s be honest, when people hear the phrase “open source infrastructure,” it sounds like something best left to coders, techies, or blockchain nerds. But it’s not.
Whether you’re going to a doctor, sending money abroad, or casting a vote, there’s a good chance you’re using systems that are invisible to you, closed off, proprietary, and controlled by someone else.
You hope to trust them, even if you don’t understand them. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says this is a serious problem.
In a recent blog post, he argues that important systems should be transparent, open, and verified. Not just because it’s good tech, but because it helps restore public trust.
He’s not wrong. When the tools we depend on are locked away behind corporate secrecy, people start asking a reasonable question:
“Who’s really in control here, and are they working for us?”
How Open Source Infrastructure Solves Real-World Problems
Let’s break it down. Buterin makes it clear: open source isn’t just about letting people peek at code. It is about the construction systems that are transparent by design, and anyone can improve or understand.
So what does it look like in practice?
Healthcare: Mistrust Comes from the Unknown
Think back to the early days of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
There wasn’t just hesitancy, there was confusion. Why was the process so rushed? Who was making the calls? Could we really trust the results?
A lot of that came down to the closed nature of the systems involved.
People couldn’t see how things were being made or communicated. But open source projects like PopVax take a different approach.
They make everything public, from manufacturing steps to funding models. That transparency doesn’t just save money, it builds trust.
Finance: Open Tools Are Just More Efficient
Buterin compared two experiences. One: sending a crypto transaction in 5 seconds. Two: mailing a signed legal document overseas. That one took 30 minutes and cost him $119.
That second one? Totally unnecessary. And it exists because traditional financial systems are bloated with bureaucracy, middlemen, and hidden processes.
Open source infrastructure in finance, like crypto wallets and blockchains, strips all that away. You can see what’s happening, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it.
Open Source Infrastructure Is a Fix for Failing Systems
If you think voting is sacred, and most of us do, then it makes no sense that so many voting machines run on secret software.
If you can’t see how votes are counted, how can you fully trust the results? Buterin’s solution is simple: use open source infrastructure for voting systems. Let the public review the code.
Let third parties verify it. Let people see how it all works. Because when the process is visible, the results feel more legitimate. This isn’t a new idea; it’s just one we’ve been slow to adopt.
And according to Buterin, that hesitation is costing us trust we might not get back. For more on how Ethereum is building in public, visit ethereum.org.
It’s Not Just About Code, It’s About Control
Vitalik isn’t saying tech alone will fix everything. But he is saying that how we build our tools affects how we use them, and who they ultimately benefit.
Closed systems are easy to abuse.
Open people are difficult to manipulate, easy to audit and more inclusive. Even better, openness does not mean to quit privacy.
In fact, Buterin recently placed a privacy roadmap for Ethereum, showing how transparent systems can still protect user data through clever design. Therefore, we do not have to choose between privacy and openness. We can do both.
