Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shares apps he uses to replace Google services

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a list of decentralized and privacy-focused applications he uses instead of Big Tech products as part of his shift toward what he calls “computing self-sovereignty.”

Buterin shared his experience of moving away from centralized services on X.

According to the developer, 2026 should become a period when users regain control over their data and computing. As an alternative to Google Maps, Buterin uses the OpenStreetMap project and the Organic Maps mobile app. He highlighted local storage of map data on the device as a key advantage, as it eliminates the constant transmission of location data to remote servers.

For email, Buterin switched from Gmail to Proton Mail, while Google Drive and Google Docs were replaced with the decentralized platform Fileverse. The latter is an open-source solution that allows users to create and edit documents with end-to-end encryption.

His communication tools have also changed. Signal has become his primary messenger instead of Telegram, chosen for its default end-to-end encryption across all chats. As additional tools for anonymous communication, he pointed to SimpleX and Session.

Buterin also said he is experimenting with running large language models (LLMs) locally on his own hardware. Instead of using corporate AI services, he runs models via Ollama and uses ComfyUI for image generation.

In his view, the development of AI tools that operate without sending requests to cloud services is an important step toward protecting privacy, although current interfaces still require improvement before they are ready for mass adoption.