Author: Nancy, PANews
In a short span of months, the departure of several core members from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) has further dampened the already low morale within the Ethereum community, especially amidst the relatively lackluster performance of ETH's price.
Key Transition Period for EF as Seasoned Veterans Depart Collectively
In mid-2025, facing issues of slow execution, insufficient ecosystem support, and long-standing criticism over governance transparency, the Ethereum Foundation initiated an internal adjustment, restructuring its Research and Development teams and conducting its first public layoffs. This move was viewed by the outside world as a long-overdue self-correction.
In March 2026, the EF released a 38-page mission statement. While reaffirming Ethereum's core vision, the Foundation explicitly stated that its role had shifted from "first guardian" to "one of many guardians." To demonstrate its commitment, the EF even created a meme image of a "SOURCE SEPPUKU LICENSE," signifying its readiness to "face the consequences and end itself" if it failed to fulfill its promises to Ethereum.
However, as EF's organizational adjustments continued to progress, core members kept leaving. Since February this year, 7 core members or senior contributors have departed.
In February, Tomasz Stańczak announced his resignation as EF's Co-Executive Director, less than a year into his tenure. During his time, he promoted initiatives in privacy protection, post-quantum security, and decentralized AI. He stated that the Ethereum ecosystem is currently in a relatively healthy phase, and he wishes to return to hands-on product development, focusing on exploring the integration paths between AI and Ethereum. He also noted that his independent execution space within the EF was gradually shrinking, and staying on felt more like a transitional handover. His successor is Bastian Aue, who joined the EF in 2019. In contrast, Aue has less publicly available information and previously focused on key supportive work such as organizational coordination and operational optimization.
About two months later, in mid-April 2026, key figure Josh Stark announced his departure after seven years at EF. He was deeply involved in several critical Ethereum upgrades, including The Merge, Dencun, Fusaka, and Pectra, and served as Co-Chair of the $1 Trillion Security Plan. He cited his reason for leaving as "plans to rest and spend time with family."
On the same day, Trent Van Epps also announced his departure from EF. He long oversaw the coordination of Protocol Guild, driving the funding mechanism for Ethereum core developers and participating in network upgrades and funding-related matters. After leaving, he will focus on Protocol Guild and research into Ethereum's political economy. He had previously publicly expressed that the EF leadership's association with the Milady NFT series was "perplexing."
In May, Alex Stokes, Co-Lead of Protocol Research, announced a leave of absence. Subsequently, Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko, former Co-Leads of Protocol Guild, as well as two senior researchers, Carl Beek and Julian Ma, also left, none publicly stating their reasons.
Although the vast majority of departing members did not publicly disclose specific reasons, sources indicated that EF, based on its emphasized "Anti-Censorship Principle," required internal members to sign a document named Mandate, otherwise facing immediate termination. This principle emphasizes that no entity should, through establishing persistent and exclusive control over key mechanisms, interfere with legitimate use or affect system operation. However, this claim has not yet been officially confirmed by EF.
Nevertheless, the talent drain from EF has also raised concerns about the overall Ethereum ecosystem. Protocol Guild contributor cheeky-gorilla 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 market rates for similar positions. High-performance new chains like Monad and top L2 projects are precisely poaching talent with salaries over 10 times higher. He warned that once seasoned researchers familiar with the underlying protocol logic are lost, Ethereum's critical roadmap faces the real risk of stalling.
Protocol Team Leadership Change, Fears of Upgrade Delays Intensify
Within just four months, the consecutive departure of seasoned veterans from the executive to research layers has further heightened the uncertainty surrounding EF's reforms, particularly the adjustments within the Protocol team.
The Protocol team is the core unit responsible for the design, research, development, and coordination of Ethereum's base layer, covering security, cryptography, zkEVM, peer-to-peer networks, and other directions. As one of the core forces within EF, it significantly influences the long-term evolution, security, and scalability of the Ethereum protocol.
Facing personnel changes, EF completed a restructuring of the Protocol team this month, appointing three new Protocol Co-Leads: Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik Svantes, who have been with EF for approximately 2 to 7 years.
Among them, Will Corcoran is a Protocol Research Coordinator, focusing on cutting-edge research in zkVM proof systems, post-quantum consensus, Fast Confirmation Rule, etc., with cross-team coordination experience and familiarity with the overall architecture;
Kev Wedderburn is the Lead of the zkEVM team, with deep expertise in zero-knowledge proofs, zkEVM implementation, and the integration of research and engineering. He will continue to lead zkEVM-related work, promoting the deep integration of the execution layer with zero-knowledge technology;
Fredrik Svantes is the Lead of Protocol Security Research, long overseeing core Ethereum security work, including the $1 Trillion Security Plan, the Ethereum Bug Bounty program, and audit competition organization, and will be deeply involved in cross-team collaboration.
Under the new leadership team, Protocol will prioritize pushing forward the launch of the Glamsterdam upgrade, preparing for the next Hegotá upgrade, and continuing to drive the implementation of the Strawmap roadmap in the short term.
Among these, Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major network upgrade, with the core goal of enhancing mainnet throughput capacity. It plans to increase the Gas limit from the current ~60 million to 200 million and adjust transaction processing mechanisms and state database management methods.
However, the Glamsterdam upgrade, originally slated for June 2026, has already been delayed. Based on the latest testnet progress and Interop meeting feedback, the actual mainnet launch is more likely to be postponed to Q3 2026. Therefore, some community members and developers worry that recent core personnel changes may further impact the upgrade schedule and execution efficiency.
Nevertheless, some hold the view that this round of personnel turnover is a normal phenomenon during EF's restructuring process. Some members left after completing their phased missions, some aligned with strategic direction adjustments, while a new leadership has gradually taken over, and the core roadmap remains unchanged. More importantly, as the Ethereum ecosystem matures, the EF itself intends to diminish its central role. This helps reduce single-point control risks, alleviate external skepticism about the Foundation's influence, and further strengthen Ethereum's position as neutral infrastructure.
This also aligns with the concept of the "Walkaway Test" advocated by Vitalik, meaning that the protocol should continue to operate safely, predictably, and stably in the long term even if core developers completely exit and cease maintenance.
