As artificial intelligence reshapes everything from finance to cybersecurity, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is developing a strategy for how the world’s second-largest blockchain fits into its future.
Rather than trying to merge blockchain and AI at the raw computational level (something Ethereum was not designed to handle), EF believes the network plays a different role: acting as a coordination and validation layer in an increasingly AI-mediated world.
Davide Crapis, head of AI at EF, argues that the motivation is as much philosophical as it is technical. More and more digital activities are being handled by AI systems, such as answering questions, executing transactions, screening applications, and writing software. If these systems were controlled by centralized organizations, the values that underpin much of the cryptocurrency movement, such as decentralization, self-sovereignty, censorship resistance, and privacy, could be undermined.
“If AI doesn’t have the characteristics that we value (self-sovereignty, censorship resistance, privacy) and we use AI for everything, then basically no one has those characteristics anymore,” he said in an interview at NEARCON 2026.
In that sense, Ethereum’s AI push is less about competing with OpenAI and Google on model size and more about avoiding a quiet re-centralization of power as AI becomes the interface to the internet.
EF’s strategy is based on two major fronts. The first is what Crapis calls decentralized AI coordination. As autonomous AI agents (software programs that can perform tasks on their own) become more common, they will need a way to identify themselves, build trust, and exchange payments. Ethereum is well suited to provide that infrastructure, he argues.
“Ethereum serves as a public verification layer with no governance for AI,” he said.
In practical terms, this means that the AI-heavy computing work remains off-chain on traditional servers. But Ethereum helps agents discover each other through public registries, evaluate reputations through transparent histories, route payments, and anchor cryptographic proofs that verify results. Crapis likens this to a decentralized version of Google Reviews combined with payment rails.
EF has been involved in developing standards to formalize this ecosystem, including a protocol for agent identity and trust known as ERC-8004. According to Klapis, these standards are gaining traction beyond Ethereum and indicate that the coordination layer of AI agents could become blockchain-based, if not the AI itself.
The second focus area focuses on bringing Ethereum’s core principles such as privacy, openness, censorship resistance, and security to the world of AI. Clapis internally refers to this initiative as “Props AI.” This is an abbreviation for the values that the Ethereum ecosystem has historically prioritized.
Privacy is an important part of that conversation. By interacting with a centralized AI service, you can gradually generate detailed user profiles based on queries, usage patterns, and behaviors.
From an Ethereum perspective, the challenge is to design AI systems that give users more control over their data and identity. One approach is to encourage more AI processing to be performed locally on the user’s device whenever possible, reducing the amount of information that needs to be sent to a centralized server.
The broader goal is to ensure that even as AI becomes embedded in everyday digital interactions, individuals continue to have meaningful control over their data and how it is used, rather than ceding that power entirely to large platforms.
“We want to create a world where users retain as much data and power as possible,” Crapis said. “We just don’t give it to the operator.”
Security concerns also underpin the strategy. As AI systems become more capable, cyberattacks can become automated and scaled to the point of straining existing defenses. Klapis foresees a near future where AI systems can confidently impersonate humans and undermine traditional authentication methods.
“We’re probably going to see some organized hacking done by AI,” he says. “When AI impersonates humans, the old security model breaks down.”
In that environment, cryptographic keys can become more important. Private key management is mathematically verifiable and does not rely on human judgment. Clapis explains Ethereum’s long-term role in clear terms.
“In a world where AI is rampant, we want Ethereum to be a key player,” he said. “If you have the key, you still have power.”
Krapis explained that the AI efforts that EF is working on are not a major priority, but one of several major priorities. Still, the move reflects a growing recognition within the crypto industry that AI will shape the next phase of the internet. If that future is mediated by intelligent agents rather than human clicks, the question becomes who controls the rails on which those agents run.
Ethereum’s bet is that even if it can’t power AI brains, it could help manage the environment in which those brains operate, anchor identities, coordinate payments, and maintain control for users.
Read more: Ethereum Foundation launches new AI team to support proxy payments
