Ethereum R1 avoids centralized leadership, proprietary governance systems, and brand-driven control to ensure it remains a public good rather than a private enterprise

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What is Ethereum R1? Fully donation-funded — no token, no private sales. Just ETH contributions from the public. Stage 2 from day one — permissionless proving, long upgrade delay period with a huge set of multisig with broad representation across the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethereum public good — Proportion of base fees go to R&D and app dev until 2030 — then they’re burned. Replaceable by design — no proprietary governance, no branding lock-in, no cult of personality. This is a rollup that belongs to Ethereum, not to a foundation, not to insiders, not to us.

We believe it’s time to build a rollup that doesn’t revolve around private token allocations or opaque governance. One that doesn’t require trust in a foundation, a multisig, or a VC round. One that can outlive us all.

“Most L2s today are acting more like new L1s than an Ethereum scaling solution — private allocations, opaque governance, and centralized control,” the developers continued.