Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, expects AI agents to manage a significant portion of network activity within two years. Speaking at the OKX Now 2026 Summit in Singapore on October 6, 2026, he suggested that AI could replace traditional user interfaces for on-chain interactions.
Buterin demonstrated this shift by updating his Ethereum Name Service records using a local AI agent in five minutes, bypassing standard apps and wallet connections. He noted that the network is evolving toward a cryptographic world computer model, which relies on verifiable proofs rather than repeated execution.
The roadmap includes the Hegotá upgrade, scheduled for 2027, which Buterin described as potentially the final fork recognizable to developers from the network's 2015 era. He emphasized that AI integration aims to assist in economic interactions, transaction verification, and security protocols.
Despite the potential, Buterin identified three primary risks: the erosion of pseudonymity, the threat of prompt injection attacks, and the security of agents capable of moving funds. He recalled a past incident involving losses of $1.4 billion as evidence that the user-interaction layer remains a critical vulnerability.
