Ethereum Foundation Outlines Core Mandate, Doubling Down on Decentralization
The Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organization that stewards the development of the Ethereum ecosystem, published its mandate on Friday, reaffirming its role and the core pillars of Ethereum.
The document serves as a formal statement of principles, coming after a year of significant internal debate about the network’s scaling trajectory. It explicitly states that the Foundation’s two overarching goals are ensuring Ethereum remains decentralized and that users retain a “final say” over their onchain assets and data, all while the protocol achieves mass scale.
Core Pillars and a Vision of Subtraction
Censorship resistance, open source code, privacy, security, and freedom-preserving technology are identified as the fundamental, non-negotiable properties of Ethereum that the Foundation is committed to upholding.
In a philosophical shift that underscores its long-term mission, the Foundation said it will actively focus on tasks that should eventually become unnecessary through a process of “subtraction.” Its work will center on core protocol upgrades, long-horizon research, cybersecurity, and providing essential tooling for developers—all while deliberately minimizing its own operational footprint over time.
This approach is crystallized in what the mandate calls 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.”
Buterin Questions Current Layer-2 Scaling Path
The mandate’s publication follows intense scrutiny from within Ethereum’s own leadership. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly argued that the ecosystem’s prevailing approach to scaling via layer-2 (L2) networks “no longer makes sense” and that many existing L2s are fundamentally centralized projects.
In a series of statements starting in February, Buterin contended that many L2s feature centralized points of control, such as private trusted networks and centralized sequencers, with no concrete plans to transition to a fully decentralized model. He used a stark example to illustrate his point: a layer-2 project boasting 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) that relies on a multi-signature bridge to interact with Ethereum’s layer-1 is not scaling the ecosystem in a truly decentralized manner. The security of the assets, he argued, ultimately depends on a small, trusted set of signers, undermining Ethereum’s core values.
A Call for Specialization Over Generic Scaling
Buterin proposed a radical rethinking of L2s’ role. Instead of all L2s simply acting as generic, high-throughput scaling layers for Ethereum, he suggested they should specialize in specific niches—such as privacy, identity solutions, specialized finance platforms, or social media applications. This vision drew mixed reactions from teams building current L2 solutions, some of whom are focused on generalized smart contract platforms.
This internal debate highlights a growing tension within Ethereum: balancing the immediate need for scalability and user capacity with the uncompromising principle of decentralization. The Foundation’s mandate firmly plants its flag on the side of the latter, setting a high bar for any scaling solution that wishes to be considered part of Ethereum’s core future.
Source: Ethereum Foundation Mandate
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy.
