Ethereum Foundation Issues New Mandate Defining Its Role and Core Principles

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a nonprofit that supports research and development of the Ethereum protocol and its ecosystem but does not control the network. As the ecosystem matures and EF adjusts its leadership and organization, the foundation aims to hand off functions that the community can assume, avoiding becoming a centralized bottleneck. Its core mission is to safeguard users’ sovereignty over their identities, assets and actions.

EF released the 38-page “EF Mandate” on March 13, 2026, grouping censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security under the acronym CROPS and setting the expansion of individual sovereignty as its second objective. Vitalik Buterin said on May 25 that EF would become smaller and more focused while reducing ETH sales. The foundation completed a restructuring on June 23 to implement the mandate and its treasury management policy.