Ethereum Foundation Reduces Research and Development Team

The non-profit Ethereum Foundation has reduced its research and development team, focusing on key challenges and core protocol issues.

The PR&D division is now called Protocol. The revamped team will concentrate on three main areas:

• scaling Ethereum’s base layer;
• expanding BLOB space as a key element of the data availability strategy;
• improving user experience (UX).

The reorganization follows prolonged criticism of the Foundation’s strategic direction and management decisions. Many in the Ethereum community are concerned that if current technical issues persist, the platform may lose its industry-leading position. In response to these challenges, the organization had previously changed its leadership.

“The changes announced today mark a departure from our previous work format. However, we are confident they will enhance efficiency and flexibility,” the organization stated.

The Ethereum Foundation did not specify the number of employees affected by the cuts.

“Some members of the PR&D team will no longer work with the organization,” the blog stated. “We hope they continue their journey within the Ethereum ecosystem and encourage forming teams to consider them.”

Among other tasks for Protocol: increasing transparency of update timelines, improving technical documentation, and systematizing research.

In April, the Ethereum Foundation shifted its focus to UX and L1 scaling.

In the same month, the team introduced a simplified development plan emphasizing system performance enhancement.