The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has released a document outlining its mandate, highlighting the key goals and principles guiding its work within the blockchain project’s ecosystem.
1/ The Mandate clearly states what must be protected: EF will, above all else, remain focused on an Ethereum that is censorship resistant, open source, private, and secure (CROPS), in the service of user self-sovereignty, resistant to extraction and with seamless UX.
These are…
— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) March 13, 2026
According to the document, the foundation’s mission consists of two main directions:
- to ensure that Ethereum remains a decentralized and sustainable infrastructure for financial and internet applications;
- to minimize its own influence on the ecosystem by supporting projects and developers without directly controlling the network’s development.
The mandate emphasizes the organization’s role in supporting the long-term development of the ecosystem, including research, protocol development, security, and educational initiatives.
EF sees itself not as the network’s governing center but as a community participant tasked with fostering the development of the ecosystem’s infrastructure and public goods.
The document also establishes the principle of “minimal sufficient intervention.” The foundation intends to support early-stage projects through grants, research, and other means. However, over time, such initiatives should become independent and evolve without EF’s involvement.
Particular attention in the mandate is given to openness and neutrality. EF stated that it seeks to avoid situations where the organization could become a point of centralization or a key decision-making coordinator in the network.
“Our ultimate goal is for Ethereum to pass the test of project abandonment. Its protocol and core application layers should become robust and trustless enough to continue functioning and evolving even if the foundation and current developers were to disappear tomorrow,” the document states.
Project co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that the new EF mandate largely formalizes the approach the organization has adhered to in recent months.
This is the new EF Mandate.
For many of you, the contents should be no surprise, and a clarification along the lines that we have been going and thinking for the past few months. But the clarification is nevertheless worth making.
Ethereum is a unique object and has a unique… https://t.co/SMGCWnmUk5
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 13, 2026
According to him, for many community members, the document’s content “will not come as a surprise,” but the clarification of principles is important for greater clarity regarding the foundation’s role in the ecosystem.
“Ethereum is a unique object with its role in the world. It is to be a sovereignty-preserving technological refuge, enabling cooperation without coercion, domination, or manipulation, and providing an emergency exit, ensuring that no person, organization, or ideology can achieve complete victory in cyberspace,” the developer emphasized.
Earlier in March, Buterin urged a reevaluation of the approach to application creation, experimenting with new DeFi models and AI integration without compromising fundamental principles.
