Ethereum’s energy lies in its decentralization — not simply technically, however socially and structurally. This weblog articulates the EF’s imaginative and prescient, its function, and priorities as one of many ecosystem’s stewards. We use this second as a possibility to restate our imaginative and prescient, rules and values which we proceed to uphold as we welcome the brand new administration staff. These priorities will not be a inflexible plan and are mirrored within the methods described by EF’s Co-EDs. By defining our method and focus, we additionally intention to make clear the place we direct our efforts — and the place we deliberately step again — in order that the ecosystem can proceed to thrive with everybody’s participation.
Imaginative and prescient
To steward the Infinite Backyard — the ecosystem of tasks, communities, and infrastructure constructed round Ethereum — to stay resilient amid altering environments. We uphold Ethereum as humanity’s shared world pc, an open and permissionless platform that’s already bringing stability, freedom and technologically-empowered collaboration to thousands and thousands of individuals worldwide. We honor the truth that Ethereum is already in use, creating actual worth for communities throughout the globe.
In that spirit, we embrace the metaphor of the Infinite Backyard to explain the Ethereum ecosystem: a residing, evolving house the place builders, dreamers, and stewards from all over the world can plant concepts and assist one another as we construct the instruments that may redefine finance, identification and different roots within the soil of our civilization for many years to come back.
Our Position
Ethereum’s biggest benefit is its unparalleled ecosystem. There are various groups and organizations outdoors of EF that contribute to Ethereum by pushing its boundaries ahead, by technical improvements, academic occasions, and by funding public items. The Ethereum Basis exists to strengthen this benefit and to uphold Ethereum’s core values. We establish gaps, right imbalances, and assist essential initiatives — all the time guaranteeing that no single actor (together with EF) can dominate Ethereum’s evolution. We step in strategically and step out deliberately, repeatedly adjusting our focus as Ethereum matures and the setting evolves.
By training purposeful subtraction, we’ve empowered others within the ecosystem to tackle nearly all of duties. Right now, we see our function as twofold:
We do what nobody else can do at this time.We assist others do tomorrow what solely we are able to do at this time.
This implies specializing in high-leverage areas the place EF’s distinctive place permits us to assist the ecosystem in methods few others can — whereas additionally constructing capability and infrastructure so others can ultimately take the lead. Beneath are examples of how this reveals up in observe:
The place we step in to do what nobody else can at this time:
Funding and sustaining essential Ethereum infrastructure like shopper range.Coordinating on core protocol upgrades (e.g. The Merge, Dencun), the place impartial stewardship is important – each on essential initiatives that may full throughout the subsequent 12 months, and on longer-term efforts that may outline Ethereum’s function for the following decade.Supporting zero-knowledge analysis and open-source tooling that pushes the frontier of privacy-preserving tech.Internet hosting ecosystem-wide gatherings (like Devcon) that deliver collectively numerous world contributors.Working ethereum.org as a impartial public data hub for brand new customers and builders.
The place we’ve helped others develop into roles we as soon as held:
Seeding early-stage public items tasks by grants till they develop into self-sustaining or community-fundedOpen-sourcing academic content material, developer tooling, and analysis to be constructed upon by others.Serving to new coordination mechanisms emerge and guiding them towards unbiased stewardship (e.g. MACI pilots, Protocol Guild, retroactive public items funding).Supporting geographic decentralization and native management by:
Subsequent Billion Fellowship – Empowering native builders in underserved areas.Grants to grassroots communities – Strengthening native Ethereum ecosystems.Highway to Devcon – Partaking and rising regional communities forward of Devcon.Devcon Students – Offering entry and assist for contributors from underrepresented communities.
Our Strategy
Adaptive Evolution
We evolve alongside the ecosystem, repeatedly reassessing our function and influence. Our construction and initiatives adapt to serve Ethereum’s altering wants whereas sustaining our core rules.
Considerate Complexity
We embrace the required complexity of decentralized techniques whereas striving for elegant options. Our purpose isn’t simplification for its personal sake however relatively reaching steadiness by cautious design.
We assist and amplify community-led initiatives, serving to create situations the place unbiased groups can succeed with out ongoing dependency on the Basis.
Core Rules:
Lengthy‑time period Pondering
We optimize for Ethereum’s lengthy‑time period success over quick‑time period beneficial properties, evaluating each resolution for its sustainable, multi‑generational influence and recognizing that lasting resilience requires steady studying, adaptation, and evolution.
Stewardship of Values
We shield and nurture Ethereum’s core values — censorship resistance, open supply, privateness, and safety — whereas empowering the ecosystem to develop and evolve independently. We protect these important qualities as the muse for lasting innovation and progress.
Purposeful Subtraction
Fairly than accumulate energy, we design for resilience by:
Sustaining a plurality of approaches, options, and teamsEnabling numerous participationFacilitating collaborationReducing centralization
Constructing resilience isn’t about doing much less. It typically requires including new mechanisms or complexity — however all the time with the purpose of making an anti‑fragile ecosystem that distributes energy and possession broadly.
Targets Forward
As we transfer by a pivotal time and into the years forward, our route is formed by a transparent imaginative and prescient. Groups are deeply engaged, and energetic tasks are already in movement to assist Ethereum’s continued evolution. The work forward isn’t about hitting benchmarks — it’s about focusing our power the place it issues most. To assist information our collective focus, we’ve outlined a couple of influence areas — tangible outcomes that anybody within the Ethereum ecosystem can contribute towards.
These targets will not be static; they’ll proceed to evolve alongside the ecosystem and the wants of the world round us.
The Ethereum Basis’s function is to establish high-leverage gaps — the locations the place it’s uniquely positioned to contribute — and direct its efforts towards the best doable influence.
Purpose: Maximize the quantity of people that (instantly or not directly) use Ethereum, in such a means that they profit from Ethereum’s underlying values.
What significant utilization can appear like:
Web-native monetary entry: Individuals utilizing tokenized belongings on Ethereum or DeFi for funds, financial savings and wealth constructing – notably the place fiat infrastructure is restricted, unreliable or expenses extortionate charges, or the place the infrastructure is dependable at this time however can simply develop into unreliable tomorrow.Web-native organizations: Individuals collaborating in DAOs with programmable incentive constructions that allow new types of coordination, decision-making, and capital formation that transcend the restrictions of conventional approachesDecentralized social media: Individuals utilizing an Ethereum-based social media platform the place content material is saved in a decentralized community, permitting customers to change purchasers with out giving up their social graphDecentralized AI: Individuals constructing on Ethereum to collectively practice and supply AI fashions with verifiable safety ensures, and in addition utilizing Ethereum to create financial frameworks the place AI brokers can coordinate with one another and human beings (examples: micro prediction markets)Enterprise advantages: Individuals utilizing an institutional utility that makes use of Ethereum on the backend. If constructed accurately, this may present advantages akin to auditability, privateness, interoperability and “escape hatch” mechanisms even when customers usually work together with the app by servers and not using a pockets (examples: on-chain-enforced limits to financial issuance; capacity to exit belongings to L1 and work together with L1 DeFi; capacity to zk-prove credentials to arbitrary third-party apps)
What it’s not:
Custodial wallets that solely enable ETH or token transfers to different accepted custodial wallets.Establishments that put up hashes onchain to characterize occasions, with out really giving customers safety properties that they would not in any other case have.
Purpose: Maximize the resilience of Ethereum’s technical and social infrastructure.
What resilience appears like:
Ecosystem autonomy: thriving independently of the EF or another single organizationValue alignment: staying centered on its values, even within the face of robust pursuits pulling in different directionsTeam range: energy and plurality of unbiased improvement teamsNetwork robustness: sustaining liveness, censorship resistance, security even within the face of extremely hostile occasions towards giant components of technical infrastructure (together with “low ranges of the stack” e.g. OS, {hardware}, web)Decentralization: eliminating single factors of management or failureProactive threat administration: The ecosystem’s capacity to proactively establish and mitigate central factors of failure which will come up over time
What it’s not:
100 robust groups in schooling, shopper improvement, or organizing occasions, but all depending on EF for fundingHigh-resilience in some sectors, however very low-resilience in others, which then develop into essential bottlenecks (e.g. wallets, proprietary ZK provers, social single factors of failure)Performative range that masks underlying widespread vulnerability (e.g. 20 purchasers that truly use many of the identical code base, occasions in 100 nations which might be run by the identical centralized group)
As we work towards these influence areas, we additionally stay grounded in a long-term perspective — one which sees Ethereum not simply as a know-how, however as a residing ecosystem with the potential to serve humanity for generations to come back.
We envision a future the place Ethereum serves as a resilient, impartial platform for world coordination. That implies that decentralization should stay preserved in each improvement and governance, innovation will flourish at each layer of the stack, and communities all over the world can craft and maintain their very own adaptive options. We consider the community’s technical and social resilience will solely proceed to develop stronger, and EF will do every part inside its imaginative and prescient and skill to make sure that we succeed collectively.
