Dearest Friends,
Today we are publishing the EF Mandate, a document that serves as part constitution, part manifesto, and part guide for the Ethereum Foundation.
It is written primarily for the EF itself: to be clear about what we are here to do, the principles by which we make decisions, and what we must both do and refuse to do if we are to stay true to our mission.
But within it is also the story of a journey, from source to stars. It carries a message not only to the Ethereum ecosystem, but also to the broader field of technology and to friends and allies in the wider world, including those we have not yet met, but may come to recognize in time.
Ethereum started as a question: what if digital life could be shared, yet still belong to its users?
What began as a proposed protocol became a movement, and then a promise: that free and open systems can secure, enrich, and expand human freedom; that coordination can not only respect self sovereignty, but deepen it; and that trust can be sustained in code, in culture, and in common purpose.
That promise is what brought so many of us here.
Ethereum made it possible to imagine a digital world in which people do not have to surrender everything to participate. A world in which users can hold what is theirs, act on their own terms, and coordinate with others without handing away final authority over their assets, identities, or choices. It created space for a different kind of future to be built in public.
Our Mandate to EF states what must be cherished to protect the ultimate reason for Ethereum’s existence: user self-sovereignty.
To be a part of EF, our own teams must remember that Ethereum must, above all, remain censorship resistant, open source, private, and secure (CROPS). Its self-sovereign use must be extraction-resistant and experience seamless. These are the conditions that make Ethereum worth using, and therefore worth building, and worth defending. They must never be traded away for convenience: without them we have nothing.
Only on top of this unshakeable foundation can Ethereum’s growth be unstoppable and its adoption universal. Only on top of this can we win.
We were Ethereum’s first steward. Now we are one of many. And when we are gone, we hope the principles here will continue on without us.
Ethereum was never meant to begin and end with the Ethereum Foundation. Nor was it ever meant to be the whole story. Over time, we came to see Ethereum as one important part of something broader: what we have often called the Infinite Garden, a growing ecosystem of people, projects, communities, and institutions working to keep systems open, private, resilient, humane, and free.
The world that garden must live in is changing quickly. More and more of life now runs through systems people cannot inspect, cannot meaningfully leave, and increasingly cannot live without. Political conflict is intensifying. AI mediated environments are becoming more pervasive. Many of the systems people rely on are becoming less accountable to the people who use them. In such a world, Ethereum’s original promise matters even more.
Why now? Because it is time. Ethereum is a technology of the future and the future is now. Because we have learned. As systems mature, culture cannot remain only implicit. Eventually, what has been carried through habits, instincts, and informal understanding must also become legible in text. Putting it into words is a mark of success. It means enough has been built, enough has been shared, and enough has grown beyond any one group, that clarity becomes part of good stewardship.
The EF is not Ethereum’s parent, ruler, or final authority. Our role is stewardship. To help Ethereum keep its original promise, and nothing else. The Mandate is our effort to state clearly what that requires of us.
That is why our Mandate now lives on the World Computer, where it is free for anyone to read, reinterpret, and remix, forever. We publish a canonical version for our own use, but it imposes no obligation on anyone else.
We offer it as a clarification of our role, a commitment to our principles, and an open signal to fellow stewards within Ethereum and far beyond it.
With deep gratitude, we thank pcaversaccio, Tim Clancy, Lefteris, mashbean and countless others for their advice and feedback.
We also thank Tomo Saito and Shiro for their artistic interpretation of the text.
With the greatest love in the world, we remain, very truly yours,
—
The Ethereum Foundation Board
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