The Ethereum Foundation (EF) creates a dedicated artificial intelligence (Ai) Group to make Ethereum the regulating and coordination layer for the so -called “machine economy,” according to research scientists Davide Crapis.
Crapis, who announced The initiative Monday at X, the new Dai team said it would pursue two priorities: AI agents enabilized to pay and coordinate without mediators, and developing a decentralized AI stack to prevent relying on a small number of large companies. He said Ethereum’s neutrality, verifiability and censorship resist would make it a natural base layer for intelligent systems.
The background of the Ethereum Foundation
The EF is a non-profit organization based in Zug, Switzerland, who funds and coordinates the development of the Ethereum blockchain. It does not control the network but plays a catalytic role by supporting researchers, developers and ecosystem projects.
Its remit includes funding upgrades such as the Ethereum 2.0, zero-knowledge proofs and layer-2 scaling, in conjunction with community programs such as ecosystem support program. The foundation also organizes events such as Devcon to protect cooperation and acts as a policy advocate for blockchain adoption.
In 2025, Ef rexuctured To handle Ethereum growth, emphasizes the acceleration of the ecosystem, the support of the founder and business outreach. The new Dai team represents a continuation of this shift toward specialized units that respond to emerging technologies.
Paper by Crapis
Crapis is an EF research scientist and will lead to the new Dai team. He said the group connected its work to both the EF protocol group and the support arm of its ecosystem.
“Ethereum makes AI more trustworthy, and makes AI more benefit,” he wrote, adding that the team intends to fund public goods and projects at the AI and blockchain intersection.
ERC-8004 and confidence standards
The team will build a recent job around the ERC-8004, a proposed Ethereum standard described by Crapis as a way to prove who an AI agent is and whether it can be trusted. By offering identification and reputation systems for autonomous agents, the standard is intended to allow coordination without centralized gatekeepers.
Crapis said the team will support new standards and upgrades as they appear, guided by Ethereum values and the “ACC” philosophy of decentralized acceleration. The goal, he explained, was to ensure that the development of AI remains open and proven while giving people more agencies on how intelligent economic systems interact.
Why important
For Ethereum, the move indicates a growing ambition to emerging technologies beyond financial.
If AI agents begin to transact on the scale, demand may be grown for railroads, reputation systems and standards that operate native to Ethereum. For the AI community, the initiative offers an alternative to centralized platforms that are currently dominating the AI infrastructure.
“The smarter agents are transacting, the more they need a neutral base layer for value and reputation,” Crapis said. “Ethereum benefits by the benefit of the layer and AI by escaping the lock-in to some centralized platforms.”
The team started renting and publishing resources, according to Crapis. He said the EF intends to work “with purpose and ease” to connect AI developers to the Ethereum ecosystem and to accelerate research on the border of the two fields.
