- Ethereum will prioritize decentralization and security over chasing high TPS.
- The Foundation holds 0.16% of ETH and will sell less to ensure longevity.
- Protocol resilience will rely on AI-assisted verification and FOCIL.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a significant conceptual shift for the Ethereum Foundation.
He contends that the organization should no longer be regarded as the heart of Ethereum.
Instead, he described the Foundation as “one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes” within a larger decentralized ecosystem.
Redefining the Ethereum Foundation as an Ecosystem Node
The Ethereum Foundation is now moving away from any central governance role and will instead act more like a specialized node within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Vitalik also emphasized that the organization does not hold permanent authority over the decentralized network, or even over its wider community.
In contrast, it functions only as a single node, with a very narrow, limited purpose in the system.
This change in structure directly tackles the industry concerns of centralisation and top-down management in blockchain.
As a result, the main team will have a more collaborative, distributed role alongside independent global builders and developers.
Through this conscious spreading of organizational power, the network strives to be owned by the whole community.
Some of my perspective on where the @ethereumfndn is going.
First of all, this is only my own view. The board is not just me, and I have no extra special powers on the board that the other board members do not. @aerugoettinea is the one executing much of this transition. My…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 24, 2026
Adhering to CROPS Principles and Reducing Ethereum Foundation Sales
Buterin believes the Foundation will become leaner, more focused, and more opinionated on long-term interests.
These aims are based on what he calls the “CROPS” principles: censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security.
Importantly, Vitalik explicitly stated that the Ethereum Foundation will be selling less ETH in the future.
Now, it has just 0.16% of the token’s total circulating supply.
Thus, the minimum selling price preserves market value while maintaining the sustainability of resources and the survival of institutions.
This stunning decrease in liquid token sales has been a direct response to market fears of pressure from the foundation.
Additionally, the Ethereum Foundation has launched clear signing to fight wallet hacks.
Rejecting Transaction Speed Wars for Advanced Protocol Upgrades
Meanwhile, the network completely rejects the popular narrative that the fastest layer-one blockchain always wins.
Vitalik believes Ethereum’s true competitive edge lies in ultimate decentralization, not simple transaction-per-second metrics.
Thus, the community rejects reckless scaling shortcuts in favor of maximum trust minimization and network sovereignty.
To make that happen, the next upgrades will lean heavily on AI-assisted formal verification tools for the core protocol work.
In other words, these systems will try to systematically remove risky smart contract bugs before they ever reach mainnet deployment moments.
At the same time, developers are expected to adopt advanced approaches such as FOCIL and EIP-8141 to reduce reliance on centralized go-betweens, rather than simply maintaining the same workflow.
Overall, the planned technical moves should help protect ordinary users from both malicious MEV behavior and censorship campaigns.
This is the reason the protocol has consolidated its status as the world’s leading settlement layer with these strict math safeguards.
Investors and developers can rest assured that it is built to be structurally strong, without relying on short-term marketing numbers.
