The Ethereum Foundation has published “Ethereum Basics for Governments and Institutions”: a clear primer for those making consequential decisions about digital infrastructure: central bankers, regulators, multilateral bodies, and enterprise leaders.
Original blogpost link: https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/07/01/ethereum-for-institutions
Its central argument is one we share: The systems we rely on to move value, verify identity, and coordinate across borders remain fragmented, opaque, and controlled by a small number of intermediaries. That concentration creates single points of failure and single points of pressure. Access can be withdrawn, rules can be changed by whoever governs the infrastructure, and a jurisdiction with authority over a central operator can suspend a service for millions at short notice.
In the digital age, sovereignty is no longer secured at the border or in the statute book alone. It is secured, or lost, in the architecture. Rules written on paper carry little weight if they run on infrastructure that someone else controls.
The report sets out why Ethereum functions as neutral settlement infrastructure rather than a platform: no operator who can pause it, no privileged actor able to reverse transactions or deny service, and validation distributed across thousands of independent participants and many jurisdictions. Settlement is anchored to a public base layer, while compliance, access control, and privacy are applied above it.
EDI is agnostic as to technology.
We advocate for no single network or vendor.
What we align with are the values this report articulates: credible neutrality, openness, auditability, and infrastructure that no single party can capture or switch off.
Where a technology embodies those properties, it deserves serious consideration by European institutions.
Our role is to help those institutions read infrastructure choices for what they are: governance choices with constitutional implications.
The question for every procurement and every regulation is no longer only whether a system is technically sound, but who can pressure it, who can withdraw access, and whether Europe can enforce its own rules on the rails it depends on.
Congratulations to everyone at the Ethereum Foundation policy team for creating this important report.
