🔄 Vitalik Buterin: "Openness Needs Enforcement, Not Just Hope"

Ethereum’s co-founder drops the nice-guy act — and picks up a legal sword called copyleft.

🧠 “I Used to Love MIT. Now I Prefer GPL.”

Vitalik Buterin, the brain behind Ethereum, just flipped the script on open source. In a bold July 7 blog post, he admits: permissive licenses like MIT and CC0 aren’t enough anymore. The future? Copyleft — the radical, recursive license that forces anyone using the code to keep it open.

Why the change of heart? Three words: power, profits, and platforms.

⚖️ Why Vitalik Switched Sides

1. Open Source Is Now the Default, Not the Exception Big Tech (Google, Microsoft, Huawei) already plays open. We no longer need to “convince” them — we need guardrails.

“Openness is a norm now. That means legal nudges can actually work.”

2. Crypto's Culture Shifted from Idealism to Opportunism Early devs shared code out of principle. Not anymore. VC-fueled DeFi bros aren’t dropping their source code for the vibes.

“We can’t rely on ‘please’ — we need ‘you must.’”

3. Monopolies Are a Feature, Not a Bug Network effects + economies of scale = runaway platform dominance. Copyleft is one of the few neutral, decentralized tools that keeps tech diffusion alive — without begging governments.

“Copyleft is legal jiu-jitsu — using copyright to kill copyright.”

📜 What Even Is Copyleft?

Copyleft (think GPL) flips copyright inside-out: You can use the code — but only if you also make your code open.

It’s a viral contract for freedom: You get access to the commons — but you also contribute back.

Compare that to permissive licenses (MIT, Apache): They say “do whatever you want.” Which sounds great… until Microsoft or Meta swallows your open-source tool and never shares a line back.

🧠 Vitalik’s New Philosophy: Enforced Openness

He’s done playing nice.

“Sharing data should never be seen as theft… but the modern world is built to hoard.”

From proprietary AI to walled-garden crypto, Vitalik sees today's Web3 as veering dangerously close to Web2 mistakes.

He even shouts out controversial policies that push knowledge diffusion:

• 🇺🇸 U.S. bans on non-competes
• 🇪🇺 EU mandating USB-C
• 🇨🇳 China’s forced tech transfers

“All flawed. All interesting. All signals that the era of 'nice' openness is over.”

🧵 TL;DR

• Vitalik Buterin flips: now prefers copyleft (GPL) over permissive licenses (MIT)
• Reason? Open source needs enforcement in a mercenary, monopolized tech world
• Crypto's culture has shifted: idealism out, profit in
• Copyleft = legal hack that keeps code open without needing government mandates
• “Copyleft is how we scale fairness in a winner-take-all digital world”