Vitalik Buterin expects 2026 to reverse Ethereum's drift from self-sovereignty. He argues the network's reliance on custodial wallets and centralized services undermines core values, even as usability improves. The solution, he says, is rebuilding on trust-minimized foundations through protocol upgrades.

Polygon is pivoting from a general scaling solution to a regulated payments platform. Its $250 million acquisition of Coinme and Sequence forms an Open Money Stack for compliant fiat and stablecoin payments. This moves Polygon into real-world money movement with licensed on/off-ramps and abstracted wallets.

Buterin also published a new reference document on full account abstraction, framing it as a move beyond fixed ECDSA signatures for future-proof security. Meanwhile, Biconomy's Mislav Javor proposes an 'elegant degradation' bridge, letting legacy EOAs use smart account features without wallet upgrades, easing the transition to standards like EIP-7702.