Ethereum Foundation to Enter 'Moderate Tightening' Phase, Says Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced on the X platform that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) will undergo a 'moderate tightening' phase over the next five years. According to Odaily, this initiative aims to achieve two primary objectives: delivering an ambitious technical roadmap to ensure Ethereum remains a high-performance, scalable 'world computer' without compromising robustness, sustainability, and decentralization, and enhancing the long-term sustainability of the Ethereum Foundation to safeguard its core mission. Buterin highlighted that as part of this tightening plan, he will personally take on tasks that might have been handled by the foundation's 'special projects.' His focus will be on supporting an open, verifiable, end-to-end software and hardware technology stack to protect personal and public environments. This vision encompasses areas such as finance, communication, governance, blockchain, operating systems, secure hardware, and biotechnology, with an emphasis on privacy protection, decentralization, and local-first software architecture. To support these goals, Buterin has withdrawn 16,384 ETH and plans to gradually invest it over the coming years. He is also exploring more secure decentralized staking solutions to ensure staking returns are used to support these missions long-term. He stressed that Ethereum is an integral part of the 'full-stack openness and verifiability' vision. The Ethereum Foundation will continue to focus on core Ethereum development, prioritizing 'Ethereum for people who need it' over 'Ethereum everywhere,' serving self-sovereignty, security, and privacy rather than catering to centralized corporate demands. Buterin stated that in a world increasingly dominated by force, this path offers a necessary alternative—building an undominated collaborative infrastructure through truly open, verifiable, and user-serving technology.