Having a safe CEX: proof of solvency and beyond

Buterin theorizing on different approaches to making centralized exchanges safer for users, requiring less trust. There is some interesting ideas here, but we already know the best way is to not keep your funds on an exchange.

In the longer-term future, my hope is that we move closer and closer to all exchanges being non-custodial, at least on the crypto side. Wallet recovery would exist, and there may need to be highly centralized recovery options for new users dealing with small amounts, as well as institutions that require such arrangements for legal reasons, but this can be done at the wallet layer rather than within the exchange itself.

This is really a wallet problem more than anything else. And one of the worst things about the massive fraud at FTX is that it reinforces the idea that crypto is all crooks, and that is going to keep the best user experience teams away from this. I wonder often what a crypto wallet would look like that was embedded into the iOS Wallet. Great companies that know usability are needed to tackle the wallet challenges.