The Ethereum Foundation (EF) published a comprehensive new document outlining its philosophy, priorities, and long-term role in managing the world’s second-largest blockchain network.
The 38-page “EF Mandate,” published Friday, frames the blockchain, whose ether (ETH) token is second only to bitcoin. in market capitalization, as a technology designed to protect individual freedom in an increasingly centralized digital world and establishes the principles that, according to the non-profit organization, should guide its development.
The document comes at a time of transition for the organization, following recent changes to Ethereum’s technical roadmap and the resignation earlier this year of one of the foundation’s co-CEOs.
“The Ethereum Foundation is the original administrator of the Ethereum project,” the document says. “The Foundation is not the parent, owner or ruler of Ethereum. We are not ‘the system’ itself.”
At the center of the mandate is the concept of self-sovereignty, which the foundation describes as the primary purpose of Ethereum.
“The first goal is to ensure that Ethereum becomes and remains a decentralized and resilient tool for self-sovereignty,” the manifesto states. “Our first fundamental principle is that a user has the final say over their identities, assets, actions and agents.”
To preserve that goal, the foundation says four properties must remain central to Ethereum’s development: censorship resistance, free and open source (as in freedom), privacy and security, known collectively as CROPS.
“We maintain that these properties (CROPS) must remain, as an indivisible whole, the sine qua non of all Ethereum development priorities, which cannot be displaced,” the mandate reads.
The foundation also said it will measure its own long-term success by how unnecessary it becomes. For the time being, it will focus on work that no other ecosystem participant is likely to do, including long-term protocol research, public goods security work, and coordination between development teams.
Once the broader ecosystem can take on those functions, it plans to step back.
“Our goal is to reduce the Foundation’s relative influence over time,” the team wrote. “The subtraction is rather a process to ensure the maturity of Ethereum: a growth trajectory with decentralization, robust enough to surpass and outlive us.”
More generally, the document places the blockchain within an ecosystem of open technologies that support free and decentralized systems. The EF describes Ethereum as part of an “infinite garden,” an expanding network of builders, communities and institutions working to keep digital infrastructure open and resilient.
“World Computer is a decentralized infrastructure for permissionless computing, communication, and association,” the mandate states.
The manifesto concludes by reiterating the foundation’s long-term goal: to protect the promise of Ethereum as an open system that allows individuals and communities to coordinate without relying on centralized authorities.
“Our work is not about capturing markets, corporations or states, nor helping them extract or capture,” the document says. “We are here to liberate the individual and consolidate his freedom of association.”
Read more: Ethereum Foundation Leadership Restructure: Tomasz Stańczak Steps Down as Co-CEO
