Buterin, Loyalty Oaths, and Anime Girls: The Most EF Thing Ever

The Ethereum Foundation just can't catch a break. Over the past few days, developers and researchers have been debating whether someone can autonomously sign a contract under coercion. Earlier this month, the EF published a 38-page mandate outlining its guiding principles: Censorship-resistance, Open source, Privacy, and Security, or 'CROPS.' It's the kind of document that makes you wonder if someone's been hitting the enterprise buzzword juice again—or if they're just really into farming metaphors.

While few EF employees would object to championing Ethereum as a tool for user self-sovereignty, it soon surfaced that the organization was allegedly asking employees to sign a loyalty pledge and affirm CROPS or, reportedly, face expulsion. Nothing says "decentralization" quite like a pinky-swear contract with HR, am I right?

Last week, Vitalik Buterin posted to X: 'I affirm the direction set out in the mandate will help translate it into thoroughly reasoned strategies for my domain, and will maintain an exclusive and energetic focus on the mission-critical tasks necessary for its implementation, from today until my last day at the EF.' The man really knows how to commit to a LinkedIn post.

'Loyalty pledges are really unhealthy, and that is what has got people worked up a lot more than The Mandate itself,' EarlyDaysOfEth.org founder and STRATO Head of Ecosystem Bob Summerwill said. And honestly, asking adults to sign a pledge in 2024? That's giving serious "sign my yearbook" energy.

But like many sprawling debates on social media, the conversation quickly went meta. Concerns arose about whether the EF undercut the principles of CROPS, whether it needed to publish a mandate at all, and why the document featured graphic design elements seemingly inspired by the controversial Miladys NFT series. Because nothing says "censorship-resistant protocol upgrade" quite like anime jpegs, apparently.

Paul Dylan-Ennis, a lecturer at the University of Dublin and Ethereum historian, noted that 'The EF Mandate has created an unnecessary cultural schism given that the people it involves - EF employees and core developers - are already aligned around CROPS values.' It's a bit like holding a family reunion to decide whether everyone still likes pizza.

'The intent to reaffirm cypherpunk values is admirable, but the execution is puzzling,' Dylan-Ennis said. Understatement of the century, mate.

Calls to reform the EF reached a crescendo early last year after Buterin made a comment seemingly in support of communism. Amid community backlash, the EF reorganized to pursue a more competitive agenda, with Buterin announcing he would take on a larger leadership role. Nothing unites crypto Twitter like a good old-fashioned ideological panic.

Last year the EF pushed out two major protocol upgrades — Pectra and Fusaka — and took steps to actively engage with the Ethereum ecosystem, including backing app developers and investing resources in privacy tech. A sister organization, Etherealize, was spun up to communicate Ethereum's utility to Wall Street. The gang's all here.

It's in this same cultural current that the Milady NFT series — those 'neochibi' anime girls on X — was launched. Distilling Milady culture is no easy task, but supporters might use terms like: internet native, cypherpunk, and anti-woke. The group often espouses belief in 'network spirituality,' the belief that they're part of a collective, digital organization that is chaotic and creative. Detractors, however, have described Miladys as weird, racist, and unsettling. Charlotte Fang, the pseudonymous creator of Miladys, has been linked to previous internet 'performance art' projects that have