Ethereum Foundation Shakes Up Core Team in Radical Protocol Overhaul

Breaking ranks with tradition, the Ethereum Foundation just gut-renovated its protocol team—sending shockwaves through dev circles. Here’s why it matters.

Behind the code curtain: The restructure scraps legacy roles, fast-tracks Layer 2 integration, and reportedly triples R&D burn rate. Insiders whisper about ’post-merge growing pains’ as the real catalyst.

The finance angle? Traders barely blinked—too busy chasing the next memecoin ICO. Meanwhile, ETH stakers just crossed 40% of supply locked... and counting.

One thing’s clear: When the crypto world’s de facto central bank rearranges its chess pieces, the entire industry feels the tremors. Whether this move accelerates innovation or bogs down in bureaucracy remains to be seen—but you can bet the farm Vitalik’s got skin in the game.

• Ethereum Foundation lays off staff to streamline protocol focus
• Leadership reshuffle aims to fix technical execution and delivery
• Protocol team to drive UX, blobspace, and Layer 1 performance

The ethereum Foundation has made changes to its Protocol Research and Development group and cut some of its staff. The decision seeks to make operations more efficient, focus on innovative technologies and boost the scalability of Ethereum’s Layer 1. The decision comes after the community’s scrutiny on the foundation operations.

Protocol Focus on UX, Blobspace and Layer 1 Expansion

The new approach intends to expand the LAYER 1 network, add more data storage with blobspace and improve user experience. The foundation renamed its Protocol Research & Development division to “Protocol” to indicate the shift. The reorganization also introduces new leadership to improve internal coordination and accountability.

Tim Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs now lead Layer 1 scaling, while Alex Stokes and Francesco D’Amato oversee blobspace development. Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf take charge of user experience improvements, and Dankrad Feist will provide strategic advisory across teams. The new structure consolidates teams under clear mandates and defined goals.

Ethereum Lays Off Staff

Ethereum foundation said these changes are important to improve project delivery and to address critical demands in protocol evolution. While the total number of layoffs is still unknown, developers have said that at least four engineers have been dismissed. The foundation urged projects in the Ethereum ecosystem to consider hiring the affected developers.

The layoff was announced after the Pectra upgrade which made Ethereum faster but caused concerns about wallet security. The Ethereum foundation plans to match its resources with its main mission of growing the Ethereum ecosystem. Leadership believes that the restructuring will speed up the achievement of strategic goals.

Leadership Reshuffle At Ethereum Foundation

The foundation appointed Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors to provide clear, stable operations and leadership. Aya Miyaguchi, the previous executive director, has moved into a new role as foundation president to support high-level governance. The change in leadership reflects Ethereum’s dedication to transparency and future plans.

Developers and users had expressed concerns about slow research and the unclear explanations in the documentation. Therefore, the foundation decided to improve the frequency of upgrades and make research more accessible. The restructured Protocol division will act as the main coordination point.

Leaders at Ethereum think this change is necessary as the network grows and more people use it. Layer 2 networks, zkEVMs and data scaling solutions require more cooperation between research and deployment. Ethereum intends to address the increased demand for secure and scalable blockchain infrastructure worldwide.

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