Ethereum Foundation's New Mandate Has The Community Divided | Bankless Takes

**Ryan** (0:03)
The Ethereum Foundation dropped a mandate document describing its values, describing its approach. This caused a reaction, let's say. Some people loved it, some people hated it. We're going to discuss it today and give our takes because it is time for another Bankless Takes episode. David, we do these things whenever we're feeling, what, like motivated, that there's something to discuss.
What's the cadence of Bankless Takes episodes?

**David** (0:27)
Yeah, when there is a conversation happening that you and I are a part of or can contribute to or otherwise have takes about. Ethereum is a very frequent topic of this. We've done other ones in the past as well. I think maybe the most common reason or way that these episodes come about is somebody in the EF, usually Vitalik, releases a blog post and everyone's talking about it and then therefore, so do we, which is exactly what happened this week. Galaxy operates where digital assets and next-generation infrastructure come together, serving institutions end to end. On the market side, Galaxy is a leading institutional platform, providing access to spot derivatives, structured products, defi lending, investment banking, and financing. With more than 1,600 trading counterparties, Galaxy helps institutions navigate every phase of the market cycle. The platform also supports long-term allocators through actively managed strategies and institutional grade staking and blockchain infrastructure. That scale is real. Galaxy has over $12 billion in assets on the platform and averaged a $1.8 billion loan book in late 2025, reflecting deep trust across the ecosystem. Beyond digital assets, Galaxy is also building infrastructure for an AI-powered future. Its Helios data center campus is purpose-built for AI and high-performance computing, with more than 1.6 gigawatts of approved power capacity, making it one of the largest sites of its kind. From global markets to AI-ready data centers, Galaxy is serving the digital asset ecosystem end to end. Explore Galaxy at galaxy.com/bankless or click the link in the show notes. Why does managing investments still mean juggling multiple apps, accounts and currencies? Crypto trades around the clock. Stocks, ETFs and commodities are moving on chain. Yet most platforms still keep everything split apart, turning diversification into unnecessary friction. BitGet is delivering a different kind of experience with its universal exchange. One platform where users can access crypto, tokenized stocks, ETFs and other assets in the same place, all traded directly using USDT.
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**Ryan** (2:40)
Yeah, a lot of these are Ethereum related, let's say. I'm actually very curious in this conversation, what your opinion is and how that contrasts with my opinion to see like whether there's a delta on that or not, or whether we have somewhat similar opinion. But tell us what happened.

**David** (2:55)
We usually don't have that much of a delta.

**Ryan** (2:57)
That's true, but like let's tease it. This could be a big clash, Bankless Nation, all right? This could be the...

**David** (3:02)
Gloves are coming on.

**Ryan** (3:04)
Yeah, gloves are coming off, all right? David and Ryan are gonna brawl on this one. What happened was the foundation, the Ethereum Foundation released what they call an EF mandate. What was the EF mandate?

**David** (3:16)
It was first a tweet, then a blog that linked to a 38 page document. And it's not 38 pages of writing, it's probably a third of that. A lot of art, a lot of just blank pages, just title pages, very aesthetic. Aesthetically really turned up the dials on this one.

**Ryan** (3:33)
Yes.

**David** (3:34)
The idea, it was stated that the EF mandate is a document by the EF, for the EF, but they are publishing it publicly so that anyone who is interested in following along, the broader Ethereum community, can follow along.

**Ryan** (3:48)
So it was for the organization itself, it was for the...

**David** (3:51)
An internal guiding document.

**Ryan** (3:53)
But then also it said also for fellow self-sovereign individuals on the journey, so people in the Ethereum community as well, it was the secondary audience for this, you'd say.

**David** (4:01)
Yeah, that's right, that's right. And like the core of the document are two pillars. There's a technical pillar, which outlined this idea of crops. I don't think crops had been a thing. I think this document introduced crops. Is that correct?

**Ryan** (4:15)
I think so. I've never heard of crops. It's not been popularized.