Europe is betting on chips, AI, and clouds but overlooking protocols that hardwire sovereignty into the internet itself.Europe wants digital sovereignty. What it has instead is dependency: data centres powered by foreign providers, chips made in Asia, and cloud platforms owned in the US.The European Commission’s main overarching policy framework for tackling this is the Digital Decade programme, which sets targets for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. And while its scope goes beyond sovereignty, the targets it sets for infrastructure, skills, and public services are central to that debate. Progress is tracked each year in the State of the Digital Decade report.One of the key findings from the 2025 edition is that “a substantial portion of governmental digital infrastructure continues to depend on service providers outside the EU.” The Commission has scheduled a review in 2026 to determine whether the Digital Decade targets remain realistic and whether the framework itself needs updating. This review will be an important opportunity to reassess how Europe approaches digital sovereignty and whether current efforts are enough. My take is that, as things stand, the answer is no.Protocols as Sovereign InfrastructureThe EU continues to frame sovereignty in terms of where infrastructure is located and who owns it. That approach risks overlooking the deeper layer that actually determines how systems function. Protocols are what make digital environments interoperable and resilient. They set the terms of openness or closure, transparency or opacity, distribution or capture. Sovereignty in this context does not mean ownership but the capacity to rely on digital systems that are accessible to everyone on equal terms and cannot be unilaterally restricted by external actors.This is where Ethereum comes in.Ethereum provides a neutral settlement layer that anyone can build on without requiring permission from a corporate gatekeeper. No single entity decides who participates or how transactions are validated. Governance happens in the open, through public forums and visible code repositories, rather than behind closed doors.Cloud services or chip factories can be bought, regulated, or nationalised, but they remain corporate or national assets. Ethereum functions as a digital commons: open, transparent and resilient by design. No single actor owns or controls it, and its continuity comes from the protocol itself rather than the policies of any company or government.The EU’s Digital Decade sets ambitious targets across four areas. But sovereignty is not just about infrastructure and platforms. It also depends on the protocols that make them open, secure, and interoperable. Image credit: The European CommissionEthereum: A close match with the Digital DecadeThe EU’s Digital Decade strategy calls for large-scale public and private investment in infrastructure that reflects European values of openness, privacy, and resilience. Ethereum already demonstrates those qualities in practice:Privacy-preserving compliance: The EU treats privacy as a fundamental right and has anchored regulation from GDPR to eIDAS on that principle. Ethereum’s research community has been at the frontier of zero-knowledge proofs, which make it possible to verify claims such as age, identity, or solvency without exposing the underlying data. This is the technical realisation of “data minimisation,” which Brussels has legislated for more than a decade.Security and resilience: The Digital Decade report stresses the need for trusted and transparent systems. Ethereum is secured by thousands of independent validators distributed globally, including an increasing number in Europe. The wider community can scrutinise any weakness in the code. The system has been tested in adversarial conditions for years while securing billions in economic value.Interoperability and openness: Europe has long pushed for interoperability to avoid vendor lock-in, from the Data Act to the Open Data Directive. Ethereum is built around composability: applications connect and interact without licenses or bilateral contracts. It is a working open standard for digital infrastructure.Public services and transparency: The Digital Decade sets benchmarks for digitising public services, from eID to health records. Ethereum can underpin verifiable registries, procurement platforms, or funding systems for public goods. Citizens could interact with infrastructure that is transparent by default and verifiable by anyone.Energy efficiency: After ‘the Merge’ upgrade in 2022, Ethereum shifted from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and reduced its energy use by around 99.95 per cent, according to independent analyses. This was a structural redesign of the network’s consensus mechanism, proving that a global decentralised system can meet climate goals without sacrificing security.How Europe Could Engage with EthereumBetting on Ethereum does not mean owning or controlling it. The opportunity lies in recognising it as a digital commons and participating more actively in its ecosystem.Supporting public goods: Ethereum has pioneered funding mechanisms such as quadratic funding and retroactive grants to support digital commons. These approaches demonstrate that shared resources can be sustained collectively and transparently, without relying on a single institution. The EU already supports digital commons through programmes such as NGI and Horizon, yet much of that funding remains tied to isolated projects. Channelling some of this investment into public goods built on Ethereum — like identity systems, registries, or civic platforms — would go further, because these tools are open-source and reusable across the wider ecosystem.Supporting validator diversity: Ethereum’s resilience depends on the diversity of its validator set. Europe can contribute by ensuring conditions that make it easier for validators to operate here. That could mean encouraging renewable-powered data centres, clarifying the legal framework for institutions that want to participate, or supporting universities and cooperatives to run validators as part of digital commons projects. The aim is not control but contribution: a diverse validator set makes the network stronger for everyone.Advancing research in privacy and cryptography: Ethereum’s research community leads in zero-knowledge proofs and other privacy-preserving technologies. These tools embody principles the EU has been legislating for years: privacy by design, user control, and data minimisation. Funding this research through European universities and institutes reinforces Europe’s academic leadership and contributes directly to protocol-level innovation.Growing skills and talent: One of the Digital Decade’s targets is to reach 20 million ICT specialists in the EU by 2030. Ethereum has one of the world’s largest open developer communities. Supporting education and training in Ethereum development helps the EU meet its Digital Decade targets while keeping expertise and entrepreneurship within Europe.Standard-setting and regulatory sandboxes: Engaging with Ethereum through regulatory sandboxes or pilot projects would allow European institutions to test decentralised infrastructure in practice. That creates learning opportunities for policymakers and ensures that regulation evolves with the technology rather than against it.Ethereum does not require Europe to thrive. But if Europe is serious about sovereignty, it should want Ethereum to thrive here, as part of the open infrastructure its citizens can trust and build on.For thoughts on why Web3 still isn’t fully grasped, check out my article “Why the EU Still Doesn’t Get Web3 — And How We Can Change That”. And if you’d like my take on Ethereum — and how we can shift the narrative around it — you’ll find that piece here.Why the EU Should Embrace Ethereum for Digital Sovereignty was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.Europe is betting on chips, AI, and clouds but overlooking protocols that hardwire sovereignty into the internet itself.Europe wants digital sovereignty. What it has instead is dependency: data centres powered by foreign providers, chips made in Asia, and cloud platforms owned in the US.The European Commission’s main overarching policy framework for tackling this is the Digital Decade programme, which sets targets for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. And while its scope goes beyond sovereignty, the targets it sets for infrastructure, skills, and public services are central to that debate. Progress is tracked each year in the State of the Digital Decade report.One of the key findings from the 2025 edition is that “a substantial portion of governmental digital infrastructure continues to depend on service providers outside the EU.” The Commission has scheduled a review in 2026 to determine whether the Digital Decade targets remain realistic and whether the framework itself needs updating. This review will be an important opportunity to reassess how Europe approaches digital sovereignty and whether current efforts are enough. My take is that, as things stand, the answer is no.Protocols as Sovereign InfrastructureThe EU continues to frame sovereignty in terms of where infrastructure is located and who owns it. That approach risks overlooking the deeper layer that actually determines how systems function. Protocols are what make digital environments interoperable and resilient. They set the terms of openness or closure, transparency or opacity, distribution or capture. Sovereignty in this context does not mean ownership but the capacity to rely on digital systems that are accessible to everyone on equal terms and cannot be unilaterally restricted by external actors.This is where Ethereum comes in.Ethereum provides a neutral settlement layer that anyone can build on without requiring permission from a corporate gatekeeper. No single entity decides who participates or how transactions are validated. Governance happens in the open, through public forums and visible code repositories, rather than behind closed doors.Cloud services or chip factories can be bought, regulated, or nationalised, but they remain corporate or national assets. Ethereum functions as a digital commons: open, transparent and resilient by design. No single actor owns or controls it, and its continuity comes from the protocol itself rather than the policies of any company or government.The EU’s Digital Decade sets ambitious targets across four areas. But sovereignty is not just about infrastructure and platforms. It also depends on the protocols that make them open, secure, and interoperable. Image credit: The European CommissionEthereum: A close match with the Digital DecadeThe EU’s Digital Decade strategy calls for large-scale public and private investment in infrastructure that reflects European values of openness, privacy, and resilience. Ethereum already demonstrates those qualities in practice:Privacy-preserving compliance: The EU treats privacy as a fundamental right and has anchored regulation from GDPR to eIDAS on that principle. Ethereum’s research community has been at the frontier of zero-knowledge proofs, which make it possible to verify claims such as age, identity, or solvency without exposing the underlying data. This is the technical realisation of “data minimisation,” which Brussels has legislated for more than a decade.Security and resilience: The Digital Decade report stresses the need for trusted and transparent systems. Ethereum is secured by thousands of independent validators distributed globally, including an increasing number in Europe. The wider community can scrutinise any weakness in the code. The system has been tested in adversarial conditions for years while securing billions in economic value.Interoperability and openness: Europe has long pushed for interoperability to avoid vendor lock-in, from the Data Act to the Open Data Directive. Ethereum is built around composability: applications connect and interact without licenses or bilateral contracts. It is a working open standard for digital infrastructure.Public services and transparency: The Digital Decade sets benchmarks for digitising public services, from eID to health records. Ethereum can underpin verifiable registries, procurement platforms, or funding systems for public goods. Citizens could interact with infrastructure that is transparent by default and verifiable by anyone.Energy efficiency: After ‘the Merge’ upgrade in 2022, Ethereum shifted from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and reduced its energy use by around 99.95 per cent, according to independent analyses. This was a structural redesign of the network’s consensus mechanism, proving that a global decentralised system can meet climate goals without sacrificing security.How Europe Could Engage with EthereumBetting on Ethereum does not mean owning or controlling it. The opportunity lies in recognising it as a digital commons and participating more actively in its ecosystem.Supporting public goods: Ethereum has pioneered funding mechanisms such as quadratic funding and retroactive grants to support digital commons. These approaches demonstrate that shared resources can be sustained collectively and transparently, without relying on a single institution. The EU already supports digital commons through programmes such as NGI and Horizon, yet much of that funding remains tied to isolated projects. Channelling some of this investment into public goods built on Ethereum — like identity systems, registries, or civic platforms — would go further, because these tools are open-source and reusable across the wider ecosystem.Supporting validator diversity: Ethereum’s resilience depends on the diversity of its validator set. Europe can contribute by ensuring conditions that make it easier for validators to operate here. That could mean encouraging renewable-powered data centres, clarifying the legal framework for institutions that want to participate, or supporting universities and cooperatives to run validators as part of digital commons projects. The aim is not control but contribution: a diverse validator set makes the network stronger for everyone.Advancing research in privacy and cryptography: Ethereum’s research community leads in zero-knowledge proofs and other privacy-preserving technologies. These tools embody principles the EU has been legislating for years: privacy by design, user control, and data minimisation. Funding this research through European universities and institutes reinforces Europe’s academic leadership and contributes directly to protocol-level innovation.Growing skills and talent: One of the Digital Decade’s targets is to reach 20 million ICT specialists in the EU by 2030. Ethereum has one of the world’s largest open developer communities. Supporting education and training in Ethereum development helps the EU meet its Digital Decade targets while keeping expertise and entrepreneurship within Europe.Standard-setting and regulatory sandboxes: Engaging with Ethereum through regulatory sandboxes or pilot projects would allow European institutions to test decentralised infrastructure in practice. That creates learning opportunities for policymakers and ensures that regulation evolves with the technology rather than against it.Ethereum does not require Europe to thrive. But if Europe is serious about sovereignty, it should want Ethereum to thrive here, as part of the open infrastructure its citizens can trust and build on.For thoughts on why Web3 still isn’t fully grasped, check out my article “Why the EU Still Doesn’t Get Web3 — And How We Can Change That”. And if you’d like my take on Ethereum — and how we can shift the narrative around it — you’ll find that piece here.Why the EU Should Embrace Ethereum for Digital Sovereignty was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.