As artificial intelligence reshapes everything from finance to cybersecurity, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is strategizing how the world’s second-largest blockchain fits into that future.
Rather than trying to merge blockchains and AI at the raw computing level (something Ethereum was never designed to do), the EF sees the network playing a different role: acting as a coordination and verification layer in an increasingly AI-mediated world.
Davide Crapis, AI leader at EF, argues that motivation is as philosophical as it is technical. More and more digital activity is being handled by artificial intelligence systems, whether answering questions, executing operations, examining applications or writing software. If those systems are controlled by centralized entities, the values underpinning much of the crypto movement—decentralization, self-sovereignty, censorship resistance, and privacy—could be eroded.
“If AI doesn’t have the properties we care about (self-sovereignty, censorship resistance, privacy) and then we use AI for everything, basically no one has those properties anymore,” he told CoinDesk in an interview at NEARCON 2026.
In that sense, Ethereum’s AI push has less to do with competing with OpenAI or Google on model size and more to do with ensuring that as AI becomes the front end of the internet, it doesn’t quietly recentralize power.
The FA’s strategy is based on two broad fronts. The first is what Crapis calls decentralized AI coordination. As autonomous AI agents (software programs capable of performing tasks on their own) become more common, they will need ways to identify themselves, build trust, and exchange payments. He maintains that Ethereum is well prepared to provide that infrastructure.
“Ethereum functions as a public, governance-free verification layer for AI,” he said.
In practical terms, that means the heavy lifting of AI computing remains off-chain, on traditional servers. But Ethereum can help agents discover each other through public records, assess reputation through transparent histories, route payments, and anchor cryptographic proofs that verify results. Crapis compares it to a decentralized version of Google Reviews combined with payment gateways.
The EF has been involved in developing standards to formalize this ecosystem, including a protocol for agent identity and trust, known as ERC-8004. According to Crapis, these standards are gaining traction beyond Ethereum, indicating that the coordination layer for AI agents can be blockchain-based even if the AI itself is not.
The second area of focus focuses on bringing Ethereum’s core principles (such as privacy, openness, censorship resistance, and security) to the world of AI. Crapis refers to this effort internally as “Props AI,” shorthand for the values the Ethereum ecosystem has historically prioritized.
Privacy is an important part of that conversation. Interaction with centralized AI services can gradually generate detailed user profiles based on queries, usage patterns and behavior.
From Ethereum’s perspective, the challenge is to design artificial intelligence systems that allow users to maintain greater control over their data and identity. One approach is to encourage more AI processing to be done locally on users’ devices wherever possible, reducing the amount of information that must be sent to centralized servers.
The broader goal is to ensure that as AI becomes integrated into everyday digital interactions, people continue to maintain meaningful control over their data and how it is used, rather than handing that power over entirely to large platforms.
“We want to create a world where users keep as much data and energy as possible,” Crapis said. “We just don’t give it to the operators.”
Security concerns also underpin the strategy. As AI systems become more capable, they are likely to automate and escalate cyberattacks in ways that challenge existing defenses. Crapis predicts a near future in which artificial intelligence systems will be able to convincingly impersonate humans, undermining traditional authentication methods.
“We will probably see hacks orchestrated by AI,” he said. “Old security models are broken when AI can impersonate a human.”
In that environment, cryptographic keys may become more important. Control of a private key is mathematically verifiable and does not depend on human judgment. Crapis frames Ethereum’s long-term role in clear terms.
“In a world where AI is in the wild, we want Ethereum to be the place with the big lock,” he said. “If I have the keys, I still have power.”
Crapis described the AI initiative being undertaken by the Environmental Fund as one of several important priorities rather than the dominant one. Still, the move reflects a growing recognition within the crypto industry that AI will shape the next phase of the Internet. If that future is mediated by intelligent agents rather than human clicks, the question is who controls the rails on which those agents move.
Ethereum’s bet is that even if it doesn’t power AI brains, it can help govern the environment in which those brains operate, anchoring identity, coordinating payments, and preserving user control.
Read more: Ethereum Foundation Starts New AI Team to Support Agent Payments
