Twelve years after the “divorce” of the Ethereum cofounders, Charles Hoskinson appears to have once again challenged Vitalik Buterin. The trigger was the publication of the Ethereum Foundation Mandate, a document that could become the beginning of a constitution for the largest altcoin in the market at the moment.
Hoskinson, however, is convinced that Ethereum is only trying to catch up with Cardano (ADA). He even offered competitors the help of his main ally, the University of Buenos Aires.
Why Cardano claims lead in on-chain governance
In the document published on March 13, 2026, the Ethereum Foundation outlined three key pillars of its work: subsidiarity, protection of values and temporality. The latter means that over time the role of the Ethereum Foundation should dissolve and the ecosystem is expected to become fully autonomous.
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For the creator of Cardano, this mandate looks more like a repetition of what was already implemented in Argentina. Back in December 2024, a global convention was held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires, which effectively became the constitution of Cardano.
If one compares the mandate with the constitution, the fundamental difference between these documents is that the control mechanism in the Ethereum Foundation Mandate is based on moral authority and potential loss of trust from developers. In Cardano, it is an entire constitutional committee that has veto power over upgrades that, in its view, may violate the law.
Perhaps this is why Hoskinson is ironic when he says that if Ethereum truly wants to mature and turn its mandate into a real constitution, it should come to Buenos Aires and receive approval at UBA.