Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says he spent 100 days keeping his phone in flight mode and relying on Wi-Fi rather than a cellular connection, an experiment that exposed how deeply routine travel, identity checks and online services depend on mobile networks.
Buterin said the arrangement allowed him to continue working and traveling, with one short exception to receive an SMS needed to preserve his mobile plan. He also carried emergency communications equipment during a hike in a remote area after people traveling with him requested regular check-ins.
The exercise was designed partly to reduce location tracking. Buterin argued that cellular networks can associate a handset with a subscriber and follow its movements through carrier infrastructure and device identifiers, including the International Mobile Equipment Identity, or IMEI, number. He added that detailed records of movement and device use can give AI systems enough behavioral information to help infer a person's identity.
His account offers a practical, if sometimes inconvenient, case for reducing dependence on always-connected devices. The experiment did not eliminate communications or online access; it shifted them toward Wi-Fi, locally stored data and alternative software interfaces. That distinction matters for crypto users who routinely face account-recovery prompts, browser-wallet approvals and phone-based authentication requirements.
Sms verification proved the most persistent obstacle
Singapore produced the most immediate disruption, according to Buterin. Without a cellular connection, he could not receive SMS verification codes needed to access Grab, the ride-hailing application widely used in the city-state.
The problem narrowed his transport and dining options, he wrote. In some cases, he took the metro when a taxi would have been more convenient. The experience illustrates how SMS authentication, often treated as a basic security measure, can become a single point of failure for someone who declines continuous mobile-network access.
Buterin's concerns overlap with a longstanding security issue in cryptocurrency: SIM swapping. In such attacks, criminals persuade or bribe a telecom provider to move a victim's phone number to a SIM card under their control, allowing them to intercept SMS codes and potentially reset accounts. His experiment did not present Wi-Fi-only use as a universal answer to account security, but it demonstrates the trade-off between reducing dependence on a phone number and retaining frictionless access to mainstream services.
Public Wi-Fi availability varied sharply between locations. Buterin ranked Taipei first among the places he visited, estimating that the chance of finding and connecting to a hotspot at a given moment exceeded 25%. He attributed much of that availability to municipal networks and convenience stores.
Ukraine, the United States, Canada and Singapore made up a second group in his assessment. Buterin said Ukraine had many accessible hotspots, including some without captive portals, the login pages that often appear before a network grants internet access. The other locations had extensive Wi-Fi availability but frequently required SMS verification or other logins, limiting their usefulness for a phone disconnected from cellular service.
Austria and Hungary were less workable because Wi-Fi networks were present but typically required SMS authentication, he wrote. Switzerland ranked last. During a 1.5-kilometer walk through a city center, Buterin said he found only two public connections that did not require SMS verification: one at a shoe store and another at Starbucks.
Offline maps made travel possible, with limits
For navigation, Buterin used CoMaps, an offline mapping application built around downloadable OpenStreetMap data and on-device routing. He found it less useful than Google Maps for commercial information such as restaurant listings, shop details and opening hours. It performed better on hiking trails and outdoor routes, he said.
That advantage carried its own risk. Buterin described following inaccurate trail information into several hundred meters of dense brush before returning to a populated area. Open mapping data can be particularly valuable in places where connectivity is scarce, but the incident also showed that locally stored maps are only as reliable as the underlying geographic records.
Buterin connected the mapping experience to a larger interest in world knowledge tools that work without a live connection. He estimated that an English-only Wikipedia dump in compressed plaintext, without images or other multimedia, occupies about 27 GB. The complete OpenStreetMap planet dataset is about 2.2 TB, he wrote, though a reduced and compressed version representing 1% to 10% of that size could cover many offline uses.
Those figures frame the issue as a storage and software-design problem rather than an impossible hardware constraint. Modern phones and laptops can hold substantial local databases, while selective regional downloads could make maps, reference material and personal records accessible without sending every request to a remote server.
Local knowledge tools face a speed challenge
Buterin pointed to a developer bounty competition organized by Statuette, to which he said he contributed as a donor. The contest focused on mobile applications designed to make useful information available offline.
He highlighted FieldAtlas, an offline mapping project, and Commonplace, a local personal knowledge-base tool. Both reflect a design approach in which a device holds and searches its own data rather than treating cloud access as a prerequisite for basic tasks.
On-device large language models were less convincing in their current form, Buterin wrote. Some entries took about one minute to answer simple questions, while others required as long as 22 minutes. He said the more effective designs used semantic search to retrieve relevant local information immediately, then employed a smaller model to turn the results into a structured response.
That approach could be more practical than attempting to run a large general-purpose model for every query. A locally indexed archive of maps, notes or technical documentation can provide fast answers without requiring a device to generate knowledge from scratch.
Buterin shifts crypto tasks away from browser interfaces
The digital-minimalism experiment also extended to Ethereum-related activity. Buterin said he has moved some tasks away from web interfaces and toward command-line software, including updating Ethereum Name Service records and making private transfers with a tool called kohaku-cli.
He said kohaku-cli's workflow has been simplified so users no longer need to enter a transaction value twice or understand a technical concept known as a tail call. The changes point to a recurring usability problem in crypto security: tools designed to reduce reliance on a browser can become inaccessible if they demand too much technical knowledge.
Buterin described three problems with web applications. First, they generally download code repeatedly, requiring users to trust the application again each time they visit. Second, browsers can collect extensive behavioral and technical information that contributes to device fingerprinting. Third, web interfaces can be designed to push users toward particular choices, whether through defaults, prompts or visual emphasis.
Local software does not remove the need to trust code, secure devices or verify transactions. It can, though, reduce exposure to constantly changing websites and limit the amount of browsing data generated during sensitive actions. Buterin suggested that AI systems could eventually make command-line tools easier to use by translating a natural-language request into an auditable command.
His 100-day test ultimately presents a less connected phone as workable but demanding. Wi-Fi access, offline maps, local databases and command-line tools can replace many services usually supplied by cellular networks and browser-based applications, while SMS-gated platforms remain a stubborn barrier to operating outside the standard mobile identity system.
Curious about Ethereum’s future while reading about Vitalik? Explore its core mechanics in what is Ethereum, how does it work.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not represent the views or financial advice of Toobit. We make no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of this information and shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from its use. Investing in digital assets involves risk; users should independently evaluate their financial situation and the risks involved. For further details, please consult our Terms of Service and Risk Disclosure.
