Ethereum Foundation Publishes Mandate to Protect Decentralization

The Ethereum Foundation published its mandate on Friday, reaffirming its role and the core pillars of Ethereum. It sets two goals: that Ethereum remains decentralized and that users have a “final say” over their onchain assets and data, while the protocol achieves mass scale.

Censorship resistance, open source code, privacy, security and freedom-preserving technology are listed as core properties to be upheld. The Foundation said it will continue focusing on core protocol upgrades, long-horizon research, cybersecurity and developer tooling while minimizing its role where possible.

It framed a long-term aim as helping Ethereum pass the walkaway test: “Our ultimate goal is for Ethereum to pass the walkaway test: its protocol and core application layers become robust and trustless enough that they would continue to reliably function and evolve even if the Foundation and today’s core developers disappeared tomorrow.” The mandate describes a process of subtraction, concentrating on tasks that become less necessary over time.

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