Ethereum marks 11 years with foundation leadership overhaul
In brief
- Ethereum Foundation lost nine senior members including co-executive directors over seven months
- Foundation cut workforce by 20% and published first formal mandate in March
- Fusaka upgrade introduced PeerDAS for improved layer-2 data availability
- Independent entities EthLabs and EthereumSystems spun out from foundation
Leadership Departures and Restructuring
Nine senior members departed the Ethereum Foundation over the past seven months, including co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak. The organization also reduced its workforce by 20% through layoffs, reshaping how it operates at a critical juncture for the ecosystem.
The departures reflect deeper questions about the foundation's role. As competing blockchains moved aggressively to attract developers and users, some members of Ethereum's community criticized the foundation for being too inward-looking and slow to adapt. The reshuffling signals a shift in strategy.
A New Institutional Framework
In March, the foundation published its first formal mandate, effectively a manifesto for how it intends to operate going forward. At its core is a framework known as CROPS: Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy and Security, which the foundation says should guide its work.
The mandate includes a counterintuitive principle: the foundation's long-term success should be measured by its ability to reduce its own influence over Ethereum, reflecting a belief that the ecosystem should increasingly stand on its own rather than depend on a single institution to guide it. This philosophy has already taken shape through the emergence of new independent entities that have spun out of the organization, including EthLabs, EthereumSystems and Ethereum Institutional.
Technical Progress Amid Transition
Despite institutional turbulence, the network's development process remained resilient. The activation of the Fusaka upgrade demonstrated that the network's development process remained resilient. At the heart of the upgrade is PeerDAS, an advance in data availability designed to make layer-2s efficient.
The upgrade underscores a central tension: Ethereum's core development has decoupled from foundation leadership, allowing technical progress to continue even as the organization undergoes restructuring. That separation may be exactly what the foundation's new mandate intended.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the Ethereum Foundation undergo leadership changes?
The foundation faced criticism for being too inward-looking as competing blockchains moved aggressively to attract developers and users. The departures of nine senior members, including co-executive directors, reflect efforts to adapt the organization's strategy and institutional structure.
What is the CROPS framework in the Ethereum Foundation's mandate?
CROPS stands for Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy and Security. It forms the core of the foundation's first formal mandate, published in March, and guides how the organization intends to operate and allocate resources.
What is PeerDAS and why does it matter?
PeerDAS is an advance in data availability designed to make layer-2 blockchains efficient. It was introduced as part of the Fusaka upgrade and represents continued technical progress on Ethereum despite institutional changes.
