Ethereum Foundation publishes mandate outlining its role as ‘one of many stewards’ of the network

The Ethereum Foundation on Friday published a new mandate outlining the organization’s mission and reaffirming the principles it says should guide Ethereum's (ETH) long-term development.

The document, described by the foundation as "part constitution, part manifesto and part internal guide," emphasizes that Ethereum must remain censorship resistant, open source, private and secure, a framework the organization and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has abbreviated as "CROPS."

According to the foundation, those properties are central to protecting Ethereum’s core goal of enabling user self-sovereignty, allowing people to control their assets, identities, and online activity without relying on centralized intermediaries.

"Ethereum must, above all, remain censorship resistant, open source, private, and secure," the foundation wrote in the mandate. "Without them we have nothing."

Defining the role of the Ethereum Foundation

The document also outlines how the Ethereum Foundation sees its role within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Rather than acting as a governing authority over Ethereum, the organization described itself as a steward responsible for helping preserve the protocol’s core principles.

“The EF is not Ethereum’s parent, ruler, or final authority,” the foundation wrote. “Our role is stewardship.”

"We were Ethereum’s first steward. Now we are one of many," the foundation added in the mandate. "And when we are gone, we hope the principles here will continue on without us."

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin echoed that view in a separate statement, describing the network as a technology intended to preserve technological self-sovereignty and enable coordination without centralized control.

He said the foundation will continue focusing primarily on strengthening decentralization, security, privacy, and verifiability at the protocol layer while leaving many application-layer initiatives to independent teams building across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Foundation president Aya Miyaguchi said the mandate was developed to make the organization’s guiding principles more explicit as Ethereum’s ecosystem expands. While those values have long shaped Ethereum’s development, she said they were often left implicit rather than clearly documented.

"The principles we listed on the Mandate are not new," Miyaguchi wrote. "However, there were times we were too implicit about them."