Ethereum Community Foundation Aims to Boost ETH Price to $10,000

The Ethereum Community Foundation (ECF), initiated by Ethereum core developer Zak Cole, has been established with the primary goal of elevating the price of Ether (ETH) to $10,000. This new organization was unveiled during the eighth Ethereum Community Conference in Cannes, where Cole detailed the foundation's objectives and strategies.

Cole expressed his belief that the Ethereum Foundation has overlooked ETH as a valuable asset class. The ECF aims to rectify this by funding infrastructure projects that not only expand the Ethereum ecosystem but also boost the value of ETH. The foundation plans to offer grants to projects that increase ETH burn, contribute to public goods, advance core infrastructure, and scale Ethereum. To be eligible for these grants, projects must use Ethereum as the settlement layer, ensuring transactions are processed on the Ethereum mainnet, which will result in ETH burns. Additionally, these projects must be tokenless and immutable, as specified on the ECF website.

One of the ECF's key initiatives is the Ethereum Validator Association (EVA), which has been announced as the first recipient of an ECF grant. The EVA aims to give validators a voice in shaping Ethereum's monetary policy, including prioritizing EIP roadmaps and choosing Ethereum's client priorities. Cole emphasized that the EVA will empower clients based on their performance, addressing potential conflicts of interest, such as the ownership stake that Offchain Labs, the team behind layer-2 network Arbitrum, has in Prysmatic Labs, which operates the Prysm client, the second-largest consensus layer client of the Ethereum network.

Cole also criticized the Ethereum Foundation for supporting projects like Uniswap, Ethereum Name Service, and Optimism, which later launched their own tokens backed by venture capital funding. He argued that publicly funded projects should remain public and benefit those who have paid for them. This critique underscores the ECF's commitment to ensuring that the Ethereum ecosystem remains decentralized and benefits its community.

The ECF's formation represents a significant development in the Ethereum community, as it seeks to address perceived shortcomings in the Ethereum Foundation's approach to ETH as an asset. By focusing on infrastructure projects that enhance ETH's value and empower validators, the ECF aims to create a more robust and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem. The foundation's mandate to reach a $10,000 ETH price point reflects its ambitious goals and commitment to the long-term success of the Ethereum network.