Ethereum Foundation releases official mandate outlining mission and objectives
The nonprofit entity stated its ultimate objective is achieving such high levels of Ethereum decentralization that the network would operate independently even without the foundation's existence.
On Friday, the Ethereum Foundation—the nonprofit entity responsible for shepherding the Ethereum ecosystem's advancement—released its official mandate, restating its primary function and Ethereum's fundamental principles.
According to the mandate, the Ethereum Foundation has outlined two primary objectives: ensuring Ethereum maintains its decentralized nature and guaranteeing that users retain the "final say" regarding their onchain assets and information, all while the protocol expands to achieve widespread adoption.
The document emphasized that core attributes of Ethereum including resistance to censorship, openly available source code, user privacy, robust security, and technology that preserves individual freedoms will all be maintained and protected, the mandate stated.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, its ongoing priorities will remain centered on fundamental protocol enhancements, "long-horizon research," strengthening cybersecurity measures, and delivering essential tools for Ethereum's developer community, all while reducing its presence to the minimum extent possible. The mandate stated:
"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."
According to the Ethereum Foundation, its strategy involves concentrating on responsibilities that diminish in necessity as time progresses through an approach of gradual reduction.
This mandate arrives after a difficult year for the protocol, during which Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed that Ethereum's strategy for scaling via layer-2 networks "no longer makes sense," and noted that numerous L2s operate as centralized initiatives.
Buterin says a drastic change in how Ethereum scales is needed
According to Buterin, numerous layer-2 networks incorporate centralized control mechanisms, such as private trusted networks and centralized sequencers, with no roadmap for migrating to a completely decentralized structure.
"The original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path," Buterin said in February.
Buterin contended that when a layer-2 project claims to deliver a throughput of 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) while depending on a multi-signature bridge for interaction with the layer-1 protocol, it fails to scale the Ethereum ecosystem in a manner that preserves decentralization.
Rather than functioning as scaling solutions for Ethereum, the ecosystem's numerous layer-2 networks ought to focus on specific niches including privacy features, identity solutions, finance platforms and social media applications, Buterin said, a suggestion that generated varying responses from L2 projects.