老将出走、升级延期，以太坊基金会重组迎「大考」

Original author: Nancy, PANews

In just a few months, multiple core members have successively left the Ethereum Foundation (EF), further demoralizing an already struggling Ethereum community, especially against the backdrop of relatively lackluster ETH price performance.

During EF's Critical Transformation, Senior Veterans Depart En Masse

In mid-2025, facing long-standing criticism over slow execution, insufficient ecosystem support, and governance transparency, the Ethereum Foundation initiated internal restructuring, reorganizing its research and development teams and conducting its first public layoffs. This move was seen by outsiders as a belated act of self-correction.

In March 2026, the EF released a lengthy 38-page mission statement. While reaffirming Ethereum's core vision, the Foundation explicitly stated that its role has shifted from "first guardian" to "one of many guardians." To demonstrate its resolve, the EF even created a meme image titled "SOURCE SEPPUKU LICENSE," implying that if it fails to fulfill its commitments to Ethereum, it would "face the consequences and self-destruct."

However, as the EF's organizational adjustments progressed, core members continued to depart. Since February this year, seven core members or senior contributors have left.

In February, Tomasz Stańczak announced his resignation as EF Co-Executive Director, less than a year after taking the role. During his tenure, he promoted advancements in privacy protection, post-quantum security, and decentralized AI. He stated that the current Ethereum ecosystem is in a relatively healthy state, so he wishes to return to front-line product building, focusing on exploring the convergence path of AI and Ethereum. Simultaneously, he noted that his independent operational scope within the EF was gradually shrinking, making continued tenure feel more like a transitional handover. His successor is Bastian Aue, who joined the EF in 2019. Comparatively, Aue has less public presence, previously responsible for key support functions like organizational coordination and operational optimization.

About two months later, in mid-April 2026, core figure Josh Stark announced his departure after seven years at the EF. He was deeply involved in multiple critical Ethereum upgrades, including The Merge, Dencun, Fusaka, and Pectra, and served as co-chair of the trillion-dollar security plan. He cited "plans to rest and spend time with family" as his reason for leaving.

On the same day, Trent Van Epps also announced his departure from the EF. He was long responsible for the organizational coordination of Protocol Guild, promoting the funding mechanism for Ethereum core developers, and participating in network upgrades and financial support related matters. Post-departure, he will focus on Protocol Guild and the political economy of Ethereum research. He had previously publicly stated that the EF leadership's association with the Milady NFT collection was "perplexing."

Entering May, Protocol Research Co-Lead Alex Stokes announced a sabbatical. Subsequently, former Protocol Guild Co-Leads Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko, along with two senior researchers Carl Beek and Julian Ma, also left, without publicly disclosing their reasons.

Although the vast majority of departing members did not publicly specify their reasons, sources suggest that the EF, based on its emphasis on the "principle of censorship resistance," required internal members to sign a document called "Mandate," or face immediate dismissal. This principle emphasizes that no entity should interfere with legitimate usage or impact system operation by forming lasting and exclusive control over critical mechanisms. However, this claim has not yet been officially confirmed by the EF.

Nevertheless, the loss of EF talent has also raised external concerns about the overall health of the Ethereum ecosystem. Protocol Guild contributor cheeky-gorilla had warned that the health of L1 core development is the foundation of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, but core developers' salaries are 50% to 60% lower than comparable market positions, while high-performance new chains like Monad and leading L2 projects are poaching talent with salaries over 10 times higher. He warned that once senior researchers familiar with underlying protocol logic leave, Ethereum's critical roadmap faces a substantial risk of stalling.

Protocol Team Leadership Change, Upgrade Delay Fears Intensify

Within just four months, the consecutive departures of senior veterans from the execution layer to the research layer have further exacerbated uncertainty surrounding the EF's reform, particularly the adjustments within the Protocol team.

The Protocol team is the core group responsible for the design, research, development, and coordination of the Ethereum base layer, covering areas like security, cryptography, zkEVM, and peer-to-peer networks. As a central force of the EF, it significantly influences the long-term evolution, security, and scalability of the Ethereum protocol.

In response to personnel changes, the EF completed the restructuring of the Protocol team this month, appointing three new Protocol Co-Leads: Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik Svantes. All three have been with the EF for approximately 2 to 7 years.

Among them, Will Corcoran is a Protocol Research Coordinator focusing on cutting-edge research like zkVM proof systems, post-quantum consensus, and Fast Confirmation Rule, possessing cross-team coordination experience and familiarity with the overall architecture;

Kev Wedderburn is the zkEVM Team Lead with deep expertise in zero-knowledge proofs, zkEVM implementation, and the integration of research and engineering. He will continue to lead zkEVM work, driving the deep integration of the execution layer with zero-knowledge technology;

Fredrik Svantes is the Protocol Security Research Lead, who has long spearheaded core Ethereum security work, including the trillion-dollar security plan, the Ethereum Bug Bounty program, and organizing audit competitions. He will be deeply involved in cross-team collaboration.

Under the new leadership team, the Protocol group's short-term focus will be on advancing the Glamsterdam upgrade launch, preparing for the subsequent Hegotá upgrade, and continuing to push forward the implementation of the Strawmap roadmap.

Specifically, Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major network upgrade. Its core direction is to enhance the throughput capacity of the Ethereum mainnet, planning to increase the gas limit from the current approximately 60 million to 200 million, and to adjust transaction processing mechanisms and state database management methods.

However, the Glamsterdam upgrade, originally planned for June 2026, has already been somewhat delayed. Based on the latest testnet progress and feedback from the Interop conference, the actual mainnet deployment is more likely postponed to the third quarter of 2026. Consequently, some community members and developers worry that recent core personnel changes could further impact the upgrade pace and execution efficiency.

On the other hand, some believe this round of personnel turnover is a normal phenomenon within the EF restructuring process. Some members leave after completing their phase-specific missions, others move on in line with strategic direction adjustments, and simultaneously, new leadership has gradually taken over, leaving the core roadmap unchanged. More importantly, as the Ethereum ecosystem matures, the EF itself aims to downplay its central role. This helps reduce the risk of single points of control, alleviates external doubts about the Foundation's influence, and further strengthens Ethereum's positioning as a neutral infrastructure.

This aligns with the "Walkaway Test" concept advocated by Vitalik, where even if core developers completely exit and cease maintenance, the protocol can still operate securely, predictably, and stably in the long term.