The Ethereum Foundation has published a 38-page mandate laying out its philosophy, priorities, and long-term role in the evolution of Ethereum. The document states that the foundation is the project’s original steward, but not Ethereum’s parent, owner, or ruler.
The release came on Friday during a period of internal change for the organization. Ethereum’s technical roadmap has shifted in recent months, and one of the foundation’s co-executive directors stepped down earlier this year. The new text is meant to draw a clear line around what the foundation sees as its place. It says plainly that the foundation is not the system itself.
Self-sovereignty placed at the center of Ethereum’s purpose
The mandate identifies self-sovereignty as Ethereum’s core purpose. According to the document, the first aim is to make sure Ethereum becomes and remains a decentralized and resilient tool for self-sovereignty, with users retaining the final say over their identities, assets, actions, and agents.
To protect that objective, the foundation says four properties must stay central to Ethereum’s development: censorship resistance, open source and free, privacy, and security. It groups them under the acronym CROPS and says they must remain an indivisible whole that cannot be displaced from Ethereum’s development priorities.
The foundation says success means becoming less necessary
The document also defines the foundation’s long-term success in unusual terms: by how unnecessary it becomes over time. For now, it says the organization will focus on work that other participants in the ecosystem are unlikely to take on, including long-term protocol research, public-goods security efforts, and coordination across development teams.
Once the wider ecosystem can absorb those responsibilities, the foundation plans to step back. The text says its goal is to reduce the foundation’s relative influence over time. It describes that process as subtraction, not retreat, but a sign of Ethereum maturing into a decentralized system strong enough to outgrow and outlast the organization.
Ethereum framed as part of a wider open-technology network
Beyond the foundation’s own role, the mandate places Ethereum inside a broader ecosystem of open technologies. The EF describes Ethereum as part of an expanding “infinite garden” made up of builders, communities, and institutions working to keep digital infrastructure open and resilient.
The document also defines the “World Computer” as decentralized infrastructure for permissionless compute, communication, and association. In its closing section, the manifesto repeats that the foundation’s mission is not to capture markets, corporations, or states, and not to help them extract or control. Its stated aim is to protect Ethereum as an open system that lets individuals and communities coordinate without relying on centralized authorities.