Dearest friends,
Today we publish the mandate of the FEa document that serves as part constitution, part manifesto, and part guide for the Ethereum Foundation.
It is written primarily for the FE itself: to be clear about what we are here to do, the principles by which we make decisions, and what we must do and refuse to do if we are to remain true to our mission.
But it is also the story of a journey, from the source to the stars. It sends a message not only to the Ethereum ecosystem, but also to the broader field of technology and to friends and allies around the world, including those we have not yet met, but may recognize in time. Ethereum began with a question: what if digital life could be shared while still belonging to its users?
What began as a protocol proposal became a movement, then a promise: that free and open systems can secure, enrich and expand human freedom; that coordination can not only respect self-sovereignty, but also deepen it; and that trust can be maintained in code, in culture, and in common purpose.
It is this promise that brought so many of us here.
Ethereum has made it possible to imagine a digital world in which people don’t need to give up everything to participate. A world in which users can hold what is theirs, act on their own terms, and coordinate with others without ceding final authority over their assets, identity, or choices. This created space for a different kind of future to be built in public.
Our mandate to EF sets out what must be cherished to protect the ultimate reason for Ethereum’s existence: user self-sovereignty.
To be part of EF, our own teams must remember that Ethereum must, above all, remain censorship-resistant, open source, private and secure (CROPS). Its standalone use should be resistant to extraction and provide a seamless experience. These are the conditions that make Ethereum worth using, and therefore worth building and worth defending. They should never be exchanged for convenience: without them we have nothing.
Only by building on this unshakable foundation can Ethereum’s growth be unstoppable and its adoption universal. Only on top of that can we win.
We were the first steward of Ethereum. We are now one among many. And when we are gone, we hope that the principles present here will continue without us.
Ethereum was never meant to start and end with the Ethereum Foundation. It was also never meant to be the whole story. Over time, we have come to view Ethereum as an important part of something larger: what we have often called the Infinite Garden, a growing ecosystem of people, projects, communities, and institutions working to keep systems open, private, resilient, human, and free.
The world in which the garden must live is changing rapidly. Increasingly, life now passes through systems that people cannot inspect, cannot meaningfully exit, and increasingly cannot live without. The political conflict is intensifying. AI-mediated environments are becoming more and more prevalent. Many systems that people rely on are becoming less and less accountable to those who use them. In such a world, the original promise of Ethereum matters even more.
Why now? Because it’s time. Ethereum is a technology of the future and the future is now. Because we have learned. As systems mature, culture can only remain implicit. Eventually, what has been conveyed by habits, instincts and informal understanding must also become readable in the text. Putting it into words is a mark of success. This means that enough things have been built, enough things have been shared, and enough things have grown beyond a single group, that clarity is part of good management.
The EF is not the parent, ruler, or final authority of Ethereum. Our role is stewardship. To help Ethereum deliver on its original promise, and nothing else. The Mandate is our effort to clearly state what this requires of us.
This is why our mandate now resides on the world computerwhere everyone can read, reinterpret and remix for free, forever. We publish a canonical version for our own use, but it imposes no obligation on anyone.
We offer it as a clarification of our role, a commitment to our principles, and an open signal to our fellow stewards within Ethereum and beyond.
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, most sincerely yours,
—
The Ethereum Foundation Board
