Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on X on June 23, disclosing that in early 2026 he wrote a publicly released document about Ethereum with “moderate importance” under an anonymous identity. He also issued a challenge to AI tools and the community: among 200 to 2,000 public documents in the Ethereum ecosystem, use writing-style analysis to find the one he wrote.
Vitalik issues an anonymous challenge: known conditions and document scope
According to Vitalik’s X post, the challenge’s known design criteria are as follows:
Description of the anonymous document: Vitalik says the document has “moderate importance” to Ethereum (moderate importance). He wrote it under an anonymous identity in early 2026 and it has already been publicly published; the specific document title has not been disclosed.
Challenge scope (Vitalik’s estimate): In the Ethereum ecosystem, there are about 200 to 2,000 public documents whose importance is no less than that anonymous document. This range includes types such as EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals), technical specifications, research reports, and white papers.
Task objective: Use writing-style analysis to identify, within the document set above, the one written by Vitalik.
As of the time of this report, the challenge results and the exact identity of the anonymous document have not been publicly disclosed; subsequent progress will follow Vitalik’s X account and related community discussions.
The scale of Ethereum document ecosystems and the difficulty of the task
Vitalik’s estimate suggests that publicly available documents in the Ethereum ecosystem cover multiple author groups: developers, researchers, and community contributors, each with different writing habits and preferences for technical terminology. Against this backdrop, identifying Vitalik’s anonymous document is a text classification task: it requires recognizing a specific author’s text based on subtle differences in writing style among technical documents with similar content from multiple authors.
Vitalik’s experimental logic is: if AI can successfully identify it, it means the difficulty of continuously writing technical documents anonymously is increasing; if AI cannot identify it, it means the de-anonymization capability of writing-style analysis still has limitations. This is the core test framework behind the public experiment designed by Vitalik.
Vitalik’s stated purpose for issuing the challenge: responding to AI de-anonymization discussions
According to Vitalik’s X post, the direct purpose of his challenge is to respond to recent public discussions about “AI text analysis making it hard to maintain anonymity online.” He chose his own anonymous document as test material, and structured the challenge as a public experiment that the community and AI tools can participate in together. The report article adds that in Ethereum’s early days, Vitalik used a pseudonym “Vitaliy” in developer-channel activities; this background is from the report article and is not a direct statement by Vitalik in this X post.
FAQ
Has Vitalik’s anonymous document been found?
As of the time of this report, Vitalik only announced this challenge on X on June 23, 2026, and the identity of the anonymous document and the challenge results have not yet been publicly disclosed. Follow-up progress will be based on Vitalik’s X account or related Ethereum community discussions.
How is the “200 to 2,000 documents” range determined?
This range is the personal estimate Vitalik provided in his X post, reflecting his view of how many public documents in the Ethereum ecosystem have importance comparable to his anonymous document. The post does not explain any specific document list or filtering criteria.
Is there a specified AI tool to use for this challenge?
Based on Vitalik’s X post, he only stated the challenge’s goal (writing-style recognition) and the scope (200-2,000 documents), without specifying which AI tool or technical method should be used. The challenge is open to both the community and AI tools.
