Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has criticized applications that falsely portray themselves as crypto platforms while utilizing centralized login systems. During an interview at Devconnect 2023 in Istanbul, he highlighted the detrimental effects of such designs on decentralization and core crypto principles. His argument centers on a disconnect between marketing hype about use cases and real development based on solid foundations. Buterin emphasizes the need for rigorous research-driven design to ensure long-term viability. He warns against relying solely on market momentum and calls for sustainable application development, citing past NFT and gaming projects that struggled when external conditions shifted. Meanwhile, he acknowledges the potential of decentralized governance structures like DAOs and ZK voting systems as tools to address these structural issues. Buterin criticizes applications that present themselves as truly decentralized but ultimately function through centralized servers, drawing a parallel between centralization in crypto and broader challenges within the system.