Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced “significant changes” to the leadership of the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (EF).
We are indeed currently in the process of large changes to EF leadership structure, which has been ongoing for close to a year. Some of this has already been executed on and made public, and some is still in progress.
What we’re trying to achieve is primarily the following…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 18, 2025
The Swiss-registered entity promotes the project’s interests and coordinates the work of researchers and developers.
Buterin set out the main aims of the shake-up in the foundation’s senior leadership:
- raise technical competence;
- improve two-way communication with all ecosystem participants, old and new;
- attract new talent to improve “capacity and speed of execution”;
- provide more active support for application developers focused on core values such as privacy, open source and censorship resistance;
- broaden the use of decentralised and privacy-preserving technologies, as well as the Ethereum blockchain, including for payments and financial management.
At the same time he set out “explicit non-goals” the EF will not pursue:
- aggressively lobby regulators and politicians in big countries such as the United States, risking Ethereum’s position as a globally neutral platform;
- become a venue for anyone’s self-serving interests;
- assume the role of the main “hero of the project”, turning into a centralised organisation.
“This is not what the EF does, and that will not change. People seeking a different vision can create their own organisations,” Buterin said.
At the time of writing, the foundation’s executive board comprises EF CEO Aya Miyaguchi, Buterin and Patrick Storchenegger.
Candidates are already being floated
Throughout 2024 the organisation drew criticism on various fronts. Complaints included a perceived shift of the network towards centralisation and a “bias” in favour of L2 solutions, periodic sales of ETH reserves and losing out in competition with Solana.
Jerome de Tychey, president of Ethereum France, collated critical views of the EF’s work and set out recommendations.
Amid the debates about @ethereumfndn, it’s worth reflecting on how far Ethereum has come and the unique opportunities ahead. Ethereum’s greatest strength lies in its unmatched ecosystem of builders, researchers, and advocates. Instead of seeing criticism as division, let’s…
— Jerome de Tychey ?? (@jdetychey) January 17, 2025
In his view, the organisation should:
- communicate more proactively with the community about achievements and funding;
- increase transparency around spending and organisational structure, ensuring long-term sustainability and active treasury management;
- return to simple narratives of Ethereum as a “world computer” that uses ETH;
- reinforce its presence in crypto-friendly jurisdictions through top-down initiatives aimed at institutions;
- expand the ecosystem by leveraging the success of L2 solutions and positioning the network as a base for blockchain innovation.
“Ethereum’s strength lies in its ability to adapt and thrive through collaboration. Together we will shape the next chapter and make the ecosystem even stronger,” de Tychey said.
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin retweeted his manifesto-like post, confirming that they had discussed transforming the EF.
I believe @AyaMiyagotchi deserves an enormous amount of respect and gratitude for what she has done over the years in stabilizing the EF initially and setting it on a healthy trajectory during first a tough period and then through periods of growth. We are now in a very… https://t.co/O4DOwArbng
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) January 18, 2025
Lubin thanked the organisation’s current CEO, Miyaguchi, for stabilising the project during a difficult period, setting it on a “healthy trajectory” and for “everything she has done over the years”.
“We are now in a radically different environment in our industry. And that requires a completely different kind of EF,” wrote the founder and head of ConsenSys.
The entrepreneur proposed replacing Miyaguchi with two co-leaders — de Tychey and former Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan. Regarding the latter, Lubin noted the candidate’s strong technical skills.
“I believe that a partnership of Jerome and Danny to lead the EF would be a powerful infusion of energy, talent, out-of-the-box thinking, creativity in marketing and drive — exactly what the Ethereum community needs today,” he stressed.
In November 2024, during a speech at Devcon 2024, Buterin outlined prospects for the development of the second-largest cryptocurrency.