Authored by: Aakash Girimath
Compiled by: Saoirse, Foresight News
This week, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) lost three more core senior personnel. This wave of large-scale departures has increasingly led to public questioning regarding the internal stability of the organization. Protocol researcher Carl Beekhuizen and Julian Ma announced their resignations on Monday, followed by senior solution architect Pablo Voorvaart, who formally departed on Tuesday.
The number of personnel departures this year has reached nine, causing significant concern across the crypto industry. Industry insiders are questioning the Ethereum Foundation's internal consensus and coordination capabilities, while also worrying that this brain drain of core talent may hinder the advancement and implementation of key network upgrades like Glamsterdam.
DeFi researcher Ignas voiced the community's sentiment on social platform X, criticizing the foundation's lack of transparency: "What is happening inside the Ethereum Foundation? How many more unreported departures are there? What are the real reasons behind them? Do professionals no longer see promise in the Ethereum ecosystem, is the industry salary gap too large, or is the team burned out? The public wants to know the truth."
Polarized Community Reaction: Concern vs. Rational Calm
Many within the Ethereum community are deeply concerned about the negative impacts of these core departures. Community figure Banteg bluntly stated that all three protocol leads at the Ethereum Foundation have now left, sharing an annotated internal organizational chart to illustrate the situation.
However, many practitioners are taking a calm view of these personnel changes, even suggesting the Ethereum ecosystem should reduce its reliance on the Ethereum Foundation. Community investor Ryan Berckmans believes differing opinions within the team regarding development strategies and institutional planning are normal. The Ethereum Foundation remains focused on the ecosystem's long-term development, emphasizing post-quantum security technology and on-chain scaling. This turnover, he suggests, is merely a normal and healthy transition of fresh blood replacing veterans in the industry, and not a cause for excessive panic.
Similarly, Bankless's Ryan Sean Adams stated that the Ethereum community cannot solely depend on the Ethereum Foundation. He believes the market needs organizations dedicated to driving up the value of ETH assets, willing to speak out and execute decisively—something the Ethereum Foundation has consistently failed to do and is unlikely to change in the future.
David Phelps offered a different perspective, arguing this view is unreasonable: just as a head of state cannot ignore national economic and livelihood issues, as a core institution of the industry ecosystem, the Ethereum Foundation should prioritize the overall economic health and market development of the ecosystem.
Large-Scale Brain Drain Appears to be an Established Trend
This concentrated wave of departures was foreshadowed. In February of this year, former Ethereum Foundation co-Executive Director Tomasz Stańczak formally stepped down. The Ethereum Foundation has been mired in internal turmoil throughout 2024, with many core industry practitioners dissatisfied with its management style and full of doubts about the future direction of the Ethereum public chain. Tomasz Stańczak had, for a time, stabilized the situation and reversed the Foundation's decline during his tenure.
In March, the Ethereum Foundation requested all employees to sign the Cypherpunk Manifesto, sparking strong dissatisfaction across the online community. Under immense public pressure, the Foundation ultimately rescinded this controversial requirement.
Apart from the recent departures, several veteran core members had already left earlier this year. These include P2P Network Lead Raúl Kripalani, Operations Lead Josh Stark, Protocol Guild Founder Trent Van Epps, and Protocol Cluster Leads Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko. Another senior member, Alex Stokes, remains with the Foundation but is currently on planned leave.
All these departing individuals have years of deep involvement in the Ethereum ecosystem, holding significant industry experience and technical resources. Among them, Carl Beekhuizen served the Foundation for seven years, deeply involved in the early construction of the Beacon Chain and the design of the KZG ceremony; Julian Ma served for four years, leading the writing of the anti-censorship protocol FOCIL (EIP-7805) and spearheading the implementation of the 13-second block finality rule; Pablo Voorvaart, with four years of dedicated service, was fully responsible for the operations of the core teams behind the Ethereum Developer Conference Devcon and the Application Scenario Lab.
The Ethereum Foundation confirmed in its latest protocol update that the Glamsterdam testnet is now officially live, and preparations for the next Hegotà network upgrade are progressing steadily.
