The Summer of Protocols (SoP) is a seasonal research program that supports the study of protocols in and across fields. In late 2022, the Ethereum Foundation, which helps maintain the core blockchain protocol of the same name, commissioned the program in order to broaden their understanding of protocols and how to manage them. The program directors had a hunch, which would be affirmed, that there were some universal principles underlying protocols in fields as disparate as internet architecture, coal mining, and diplomacy.

Each summer, SoP directly contracts researchers, practitioners, and educators to advance the field. Since its inception, the program has strived to maintain a philosophy of open, global participation in line with the technology that it studies.