Dfinity (@dfinity) founder Dominic Williams (@dominic_w) has put the Internet Computer ($ICP) back in focus after Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) set out a new case for Ethereum ($ETH). Williams suggested $ICP could be the remaining contender in the race to build a "world computer", and pointed to the project's technical development since 2014.

The comments came as Buterin argued that Ethereum should prioritize decentralization, security and stability over aggressive $ETH burning.

Buterin Shifts the Ethereum Argument

On November 8, Buterin said $ETH should be viewed as a store of value rather than a fee-burning token. Decrypt reported that he described the fee burn as "never a true floor" and said $ETH's value comes from stability, which in turn rests on decentralization, censorship resistance and strong security.

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Buterin also warned about the cost of chasing higher burns. According to Decrypt, he said that optimizing $ETH for burning fees to justify a market capitalization of about $270 billion would make Ethereum function like a world-scale major corporation, costing it one of its main selling points: decentralization.

BeInCrypto reported that Buterin tied $ETH's stability to decentralization and what he calls CROPS, short for censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security. It added that chasing a higher burn would mean pushing gas prices up, which could price out users who need privacy and security the most. Buterin said he still considers EIP-1559, which introduced the burn, worth keeping, according to Cryptowisser.

The same report noted that Ethereum burned about 1.48 million $ETH in 2022, compared with roughly 19,200 $ETH so far in 2026, a sharp decline in the amount of $ETH removed from supply.

Dfinity Makes Its Case for $ICP

Williams has long framed the Internet Computer as a network that goes beyond token transfers. CryptoSlate's profile states that Williams founded Dfinity in 2016 and describes the Internet Computer as a blockchain network designed to run internet-scale applications on decentralized infrastructure. Williams has also spoken publicly about combining Ethereum and the Internet Computer to realize the world computer vision, including in a keynote at EDCON 2023.

His latest remarks position $ICP as the project still standing in that race as Ethereum's leading voice moves the debate toward stability and security instead of supply reduction. Williams' claim is a statement of opinion from the founder of a competing network, and it is not an independent assessment of how the two networks compare.

For $ICP and $ETH holders, the exchange highlights a wider question: whether general-purpose blockchains should compete on onchain computation and applications, or on the durability of their base layer.

Sources

Decrypt: Vitalik Buterin Moves On From 'Ultrasound Money'

BeInCrypto: Vitalik Buterin Says $ETH Fee Burn Will Not Drive Ethereum's Value

CryptoSlate: Dominic Williams profile