Ethereum Foundation members reaffirm Ethereum's mission of "decentralization": rejecting catering to speculators! Crack down on MEV monopolies, loudly advocate for "unconditional privacy"

According to the latest long post released by Ethereum Foundation (EF) member Aerugo on the X platform, EF's mission has been thoroughly clarified, and in the future, it will fully defend Ethereum's position as a "truly permissionless, self-sovereign infrastructure." Aerugo detailed EF's countermeasures against harmful MEV, privacy protection, and staking centralization in the article, and directly responded to recent personnel changes and project spinouts that have attracted community attention.
(Background recap: Infamous Ethereum MEV bot JaredFromSubway fell victim: countered by 66 fake contracts, losing $15 million)
(Additional context: Ethereum users and transaction volume hit new highs, but fees and market cap declined simultaneously—what does this signify?)

Table of Contents

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• Reject catering to speculators, EF shifts compensation towards crypto-native assets
• Crack down on harmful MEV, pursue "unconditional privacy"
• Respond to personnel changes, personally commit to "fat-loss betting"

Ethereum Foundation (EF) member Aerugo (@aerugoettinea) recently published a long post on the X platform, elaborating in detail from an "execution" perspective on EF's core mission and specific action plans. Aerugo clearly states that the purpose of EF is no longer an open question; its sole mission is to ensure that Ethereum continues to be a "truly permissionless, self-sovereign infrastructure" with features of censorship resistance, privacy, and security.

1. Intro

Vitalik recently wrote about where the EF should go; Aya added a note to explain how we got here, and why. I’ll write about the execution.

We now have enough clarity to stop treating “what is the EF for?” as an open-ended question. Our mandate is clear: The EF exists…

— Aerugo (@aerugoettinea) June 22, 2026

Reject catering to speculators, EF shifts compensation towards crypto-native assets

Aerugo emphasizes that EF’s purpose is not to boost its corporate appeal, nor to please short-term speculators or support "too big to fail" institutions. EF’s primary defensive task is to eliminate risks of "capture" at the protocol and user levels by cartels or governments.

To set an example, Aerugo revealed that EF will begin shifting employee compensation and major financial relationships toward Ethereum (ETH) and mission-aligned Ethereum-native stablecoins. He states this is not pure dogmatism, but to allow the team to personally test and improve existing system pain points (such as wallet experience, volatility, and privacy gaps). He straightforwardly says, “If we don’t use it ourselves, we have no right to shape the future.”

Crack down on harmful MEV, pursue "unconditional privacy"

In terms of transaction pipelines, preventing harmful Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) capture is EF’s core work. Aerugo points out that MEV must be minimized to prevent vested interests from gaining undue influence. To this end, EF will prioritize lowering block construction barriers, strengthening inclusion guarantees, and actively exploring open order flow solutions like FOCIL, ePBS, etc., to address extraction issues across the entire system.

Regarding privacy, the article bluntly states that a public ledger without strong default privacy is just a "monitoring substrate with settlement guarantees." Ethereum must first achieve "unconditional privacy," then allow users to selectively disclose information, rather than forcing users to rely on fragile privacy patchwork solutions. Additionally, EF will strictly prevent staking and liquidity from being overly concentrated in a few issuers, ensuring network security is not threatened by single nodes.

Respond to personnel changes, personally commit to "fat-loss betting"

Beyond defense, EF will proactively take action, including leading the layout of quantum-resistant cryptography and promoting a new vision of "personal wallets combined with personal AI agents." In response to external speculation about recent personnel departures, Aerugo positively states that these changes include normal organizational adjustments, strategic misalignments, or personal career plans. EF will not publicly discuss individual personnel details; meanwhile, in the coming months, some projects will spin out from EF. This is not an attempt to evade responsibility, but because EF’s funds are limited and resources must be focused on the most core infrastructure aligned with its mission.

Interestingly, Aerugo attached a personal declaration at the end of the post. He candidly admits that his body fat percentage has risen to 31% in recent years and publicly commits: if he cannot reduce it below 25% by the end of the year, he will resign "without severance." He further quotes Confucian wisdom, "A gentleman seeks neither fullness in eating nor comfort in living," to express his strong determination to achieve his goals, demonstrating EF members’ serious attitude toward future challenges.