TLDR:
- The Trustless Manifesto is permanently stored on-chain and non-editable to enforce core crypto design values.
- Pledge() on the contract records address and timestamp without offering rewards, signifying commitment over gain.
- The manifesto emphasises credible neutrality, self-custody, verifiability and resistance to centralised convenience.
- Embedding the manifesto in code shifts Ethereum from feature-upgrade talk to foundational governance statements.
A new chapter in blockchain governance opened as the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik Buterin unveiled the “Trustless Manifesto” on the Ethereum network.
The document publishes foundational values for decentralised protocols, emphasising self-custody, verifiability and resistance to centralised control. It is stored as an immutable smart contract at address 0x32AA964746ba2be65C71fe4A5cB3c4a023cA3e20 (ENS: trustlessmanifesto.eth) with a single function pledge(). The move signals a recommitment to trust-minimised design in crypto infrastructure.
Trustless Manifesto: What it is and how it works
The manifesto asserts that Ethereum was built “so people could coordinate without trust in intermediaries”. It was authored by the Foundation’s Account Abstraction team and Vitalik Buterin. The contract holds the full text permanently and cannot be edited or controlled by any owner or admin.
The only available action is pledge(), which records the caller’s address and timestamp in a Pledged event, with no incentive, no airdrop and no points.
Users calling pledge() signal they support user-authorised operations, avoid reliance on private servers or opaque relayers, and accept the cost required to keep Ethereum trustless.
The manifesto highlights core values: credible neutrality, self-custody, verifiability and a resistance to convenient centralisation that creeps in when protocols integrate hosted nodes or central relayers. It draws attention to living systems where each “convenient” centralised service becomes a choke point in disguise.
The on-chain installation demonstrates a clear structural commitment: the contract enforces the text and action in code rather than relying on off-chain promises or manuals.
Why the manifesto matters for Ethereum and the broader crypto market
By placing this text on-chain the Ethereum ecosystem embeds design philosophy into an immutable record accessible by any user or protocol. This shifts the discussion about Ethereum from features and upgrades to foundational commitments about decentralisation and trust.
For developers and builders the pledge mechanism creates a public registry of entities aligning with those principles, separate from token incentives or marketing gimmicks. For market watchers the signal may shape investor understanding of network integrity and philosophical differentiation.
By emphasising trust reduction over throughput or UI convenience, the manifesto realigns attention to decentralised infrastructure rather than purely layered scaling or enterprise adoption metrics. It may also influence how infrastructure providers, roll-ups, relayers and node-services justify their architecture choices.
Finally, the move may spark broader conversations across chains around corporate control, governance, and how protocols encode their core values in smart contract form.
