The New King Ascends: The Rise and Challenges of the Ethereum Community Foundation

In the summer of 2024, at the Ethereum community conference in Cannes, France, a striking "power transition" is taking place. Ethereum core developer Zak Cole announced the establishment of the "Ethereum Community Foundation" (ECF), with the mission aimed directly at the core of the existing Ethereum order—supporting institutional-level adoption of infrastructure and driving up the price of ETH.

This move openly challenges the "subtraction philosophy" long upheld by the Ethereum Foundation (EF). As the spiritual leader of the ecosystem, EF pursues "the best things for the long-term success of Ethereum." The emergence of the ECF represents a complete "addition" movement. Zak Cole's declaration came like a heavy blow: "We had hoped that EF could self-correct, but they did not. So we stepped up."

The slogan of ECF, "Every dollar will drive up the value of ETH," accurately captures the anxiety and desire of ETH holders. So, what exactly is ECF, which dares to challenge the existing order in the core area of Ethereum? Where does its confidence come from?

The Helmsman of ECF: Zak Cole

Zak Cole is not a traditional developer or community leader, but a "war engineer" who has been forged in real-world conflicts and digital warfare. His career began in the United States Marine Corps, where he was responsible for building and protecting critical network infrastructure during the Iraq War. This experience gave him a profound understanding of the importance of reliability and security of systems under extreme pressure.

After retiring, Cole quickly immersed himself in the crypto world, founding Whiteblock, which focuses on blockchain performance testing, and co-founding the smart contract security competition platform Code4rena. By auditing countless projects, he witnessed firsthand the catastrophic consequences of poorly designed token economics and centralized backdoors.

Cole is a leader who combines idealism with pragmatism. The three principles of "immutability, no tokens, and promotion of destruction" upheld by ECF are the crystallization of all the lessons learned from his ten years of professional experience. These principles are not generated out of thin air, but are survival rules distilled from countless system crashes and security vulnerabilities.

The establishment of ECF also reflects Cole's deep insight into the talent crisis in the crypto industry. He has publicly stated that finding and verifying truly talented developers is a daunting task. ECF offers a different path: focusing on building tokenless infrastructure that reinforces the core values of Ethereum, and receiving funding directly in ETH. This allows ECF to attract top talent that truly identifies with the Ethereum protocol.

The Three Pillars of ECF: Centralization, Reducing Factions, and Minting Rights

The three pillars of ECF - "promotion and destruction", "no tokens", and "immutability" - constitute its core philosophy. This philosophy aims to reverse the trend of value being continuously diluted and differentiated in the crypto ecosystem, refocusing all economic energy on the core asset of Ether.

1. "Promotion of Destruction": Weaponizing monetary policy. The ECF requires all funded projects "to promote the destruction of ETH", which is a clear signal: the ECF will directly link the network's usage rate to the value of ETH, and every successful application will serve as fuel to strengthen its monetary properties.

2. "No Tokens": Ending Economic Feudalism. The requirement of "No Tokens" is the most revolutionary aspect of the ECF concept. By funding projects that do not issue their own tokens, the ECF ensures that all economic value created by these projects will be returned to ETH holders through a burn mechanism. This is a radical value unification strategy aimed at ending economic feudalism within the ecosystem.

3. "Immutable": The cornerstone of eternal creation. The principle of "immutability" refers to the fact that smart contracts funded by ECF should eliminate the ability for a few individuals to upgrade or modify them as much as possible. ECF pursues a "trustworthy neutrality" technology, where the rules are predictable, reliable, and not influenced by any single entity. This attribute is crucial for attracting institutional capital that requires long-term stability and rule of law protection.

These three principles together form a closed loop: by funding "immutable" "no-token" projects, the ECF encourages the construction of high-quality on-chain economic activities; the large number of transactions generated by these activities will drive the "burning" of ETH, thereby directly enhancing the scarcity and value of ETH.

The Two Major Strategic Layouts of ECF

At the same time that ECF announced its establishment, it quickly launched two major strategic layouts: first, the establishment of the Ethereum Validator Association (EVA), directly targeting the core of staking politics; second, focusing on Real World Assets (RWA), intending to incorporate the vast territory of traditional finance into the Ethereum landscape.

The establishment of EVA is a precise power grab in the current Ethereum staking ecosystem. It aims to organize decentralized independent validators into a political group strong enough to counter the influence of large protocols, and to use their collective voice to advocate for proposals that can enhance the monetary attributes of ETH. This is not only technical support but also a carefully designed political mobilization.

The focus on RWA is a reflection of economic expansion. Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2030, the RWA market size will reach $16 trillion. ECF's RWA strategy perfectly aligns with its three major principles. When a large number of assets are settled on a platform that adheres to the "no tokens" and "immutability" principles, the vast economic energy from the traditional financial world will be continuously transformed into the destruction of ETH through the EIP-1559 mechanism. This is the most powerful weapon for ECF to realize its commitment to "make every dollar drive up the value of ETH."

EF and ECF: The Collision of Two Visions

The rise of ECF is a direct response to the long-standing dominance of EF. The two organizations have fundamental differences in their missions, operational methods, ideologies, and even their understanding of the role of Ethereum itself.

The vision of EF is abstract, viewing Ethereum as an "infinite garden" that needs to be carefully nurtured. Its "subtraction philosophy" aims to gradually fade the foundation itself, avoiding becoming a centralized single point of failure. In contrast, the mission of ECF is pragmatic, seeing Ethereum as an economy striving for survival in fierce market competition. Its "addition philosophy" aims to take proactive measures, "adding bricks and tiles" to Ethereum, directly strengthening its economic moat.

In terms of governance and funding operations, the EF is more like a traditional non-profit foundation, with an accountability mechanism that is indirect and aimed at the long-term health of the entire ecosystem. The ECF, on the other hand, attempts to introduce a more direct capitalist accountability system, where its funds come directly from community donations, and funding decisions will be made by contributors through "token voting."

The difference in ideology is the most fundamental divergence between the two. EF is a steadfast guardian of "trusted neutrality," focusing on funding "public goods." ECF, on the other hand, advocates for "ETH-centered capitalism," believing that the most fundamental "public good" is a strong and valuable Ether.

The future years will be defined by the dynamic competition between these two major factions. This competition may bring chaos and controversy, but in the long run, it could force all parties to sharpen their arguments, making Ethereum itself more resilient and antifragile. The battle for the soul of Ethereum has expanded from technical discussions among core developers to the public political and economic arena. And ECF is the challenger that raises the banner in this new era, intending to reign supreme.