Vitalik Buterin just donated 128 ETH each, or about $760,000 in total, towards two privacy-focused messaging apps called Session and SimpleX Chat. In a post on X, he argued that while encrypted messaging apps like Signal matter, the next developments in that space need to be in metadata privacy and permissionless account creation.
He highlighted 2 apps, Session and SimpleX, that are making bold moves in those directions. He urged netizens to download them and use them.
What Makes Session & Simplex Stand Out?
Both apps are built to avoid traditional identifiers like a phone number or a central ID. Session uses a decentralized network of service nodes, whereas SimpleX Chat avoids dependencies on phone numbers or global user IDs. Their architecture does away with the centralized server model, which exposes metadata like who you talk to, when, and how often. This is a key privacy step up over many mainstream messengers.
Call for ‘More Eyes’ On The Issue
But Buterin doesn’t only paint a rosy picture. He said that the apps were far from finished and there was much to do to ‘truly optimize user experience and security.’ He flagged a number of technical and usability challenges that still need attention. He emphasized how metadata privacy was dependent on decentralization, and putting that into practice is hard. Secondly, users expect to access chats from multiple phones or desktops; providing multi-device support adds to the complexity.
More importantly, preventing spam, bots, and identity abuse in a decentralized, metadata-private system, without forcing phone number registration, will be a difficult technical problem to resolve. Buterin called for more developers to address such issues while showing people the need to create viable alternatives to centralized messengers so that users can take back control of their metadata.
Buterin’s Philanthropic Side
This isn’t even the first time Buterin has redistributed large chunks of ETH in support of causes that aligned with decentralization and privacy. Over the years, he’s donated widely, from bio-research foundations to legal defense funds, and charities. Reports show that in 2024, he gave around 200 ETH to an animal-welfare fund, after receiving memecoins, he preferred to redirect to charity. He recently funded a research program focused on longevity and human-health technologies.
