Ethereum Foundation lays out use cases for governments, institutions in new policy guide
Key takeaways
- The report seeks to explain how Ethereum works, how it is governed and why the foundation believes it offers a more neutral alternative to both centralized digital systems and competing blockchain networks.
- The foundation argues that many of today's digital services, including payments, identity systems, registries and record-keeping, depend on centralized intermediaries that create operational and governance risks.
- To support its case, the report highlighted Ethereum's technical track record, noting that the network has maintained uninterrupted uptime since launching in 2015.
In a Wednesday blog post, the Ethereum Foundation's Global Policy Strategy (GPS) team introduced "Ethereum for Governments and Institutions," a non-technical report aimed at policymakers and institutional decision-makers evaluating blockchain infrastructure. The report seeks to explain how Ethereum works, how it is governed and why the foundation believes it offers a more neutral alternative to both centralized digital systems and competing blockchain networks.
The foundation argues that many of today's digital services, including payments, identity systems, registries and record-keeping, depend on centralized intermediaries that create operational and governance risks. According to the report, these systems can become single points of failure through outages, cyberattacks or political pressure, while also requiring users to trust centralized operators to maintain access and enforce rules.
To support its case, the report highlighted Ethereum's technical track record, noting that the network has maintained uninterrupted uptime since launching in 2015. Citing a recent OpenZeppelin report, the foundation said Ethereum was secured by roughly $76 billion worth of staked ETH as of March 2026, while emphasizing its geographically distributed validator network, multiple independent client implementations and large developer ecosystem.