Ethereum Foundation's Leadership Change: How to Uphold the Spirit of Ethereum Amidst Change?

Original Title: The Ethereum Foundation's Next Chapter

Original Authors: Hsiao-Wei Wang, Tomasz Stańczak

Compiled by: Scof, ChainCatcher

Hello everyone! This is a blog post co-authored by Hsiao-Wei and Tomasz. We have officially been serving as co-executive directors for nearly a month now. The honeymoon period is over, and it’s time to accelerate forward.

A Time of Transformation and Opportunity

Ethereum has always been a journey: it is an evolving ecosystem driven by people committed to building a more open and decentralized world. Although the Ethereum Foundation (EF) has been established for ten years, it still maintains a spirit of self-renewal.

This year, the foundation has adopted a new leadership model: co-led by two executive directors. This design introduces diverse and complementary perspectives, enhancing our ability to tackle complex challenges. We are excited and ready to embrace future opportunities and challenges while upholding Ethereum's core values, guided by long-termism, collaboration, and a sense of responsibility.

It is important to emphasize that the foundation is not a "two-horse carriage" going in different directions. Our relationship is built on mutual respect, trust, and shared values. We work closely together, constructively presenting differing opinions, and ultimately moving forward as a united team.

Our Principles and Focus Areas

Looking ahead, we will focus our work on two main pillars: guiding principles (our core values) and objectives (pursuing impact and resilience). Technical excellence runs through all our work and is the foundation for achieving our mission.

As executive directors, our responsibility is to embody the foundation's vision in a constantly changing world, covering strategic planning, ecosystem management, team leadership, and operational oversight, aimed at supporting the long-term development of Ethereum.

The values we uphold include:

• Anti-censorship: Ensuring that Ethereum remains an open network where anyone, anywhere can freely trade and build without external permission or control.
• Open-source innovation: Promoting collaboration, transparency, and community-driven development through the public sharing of knowledge and tools.
• Privacy protection: Safeguarding individual freedom and autonomy in the digital world while ensuring security.
• Security: Maintaining trust, resilience, and robustness in the Ethereum ecosystem by prioritizing secure design and ongoing research.

These values will guide our decisions regarding technical choices, ecosystem support, and the long-term vision of Ethereum as a public resource.

Based on these values, we have set the following key directions for the next 12 months:

• Promoting Ethereum mainnet (L1) scalability
• Advancing "data blobs" scalability
• Improving user experience (including L2 interoperability and application layer development)

This means we will focus on enhancing interoperability and coordination between the mainnet and layer 2 (L2), optimizing user experience and developer experience (DevEx), providing more visibility and support for the application layer and L2 at conferences like Devcon, and expanding their influence through various communication channels.

Additionally, we recognize the need to accelerate the pathways for developers, entrepreneurs, and institutions to engage with the Ethereum ecosystem. The foundation has a wealth of knowledge and leadership to guide, attract, and empower the next generation of builders.

Tomasz's Message

Ethereum is entering a new chapter. The core values remain unchanged: open-source, anti-censorship, privacy, and security. The foundation itself is changing—we will communicate more openly and be bold in engaging in difficult but necessary dialogues.

In the future, we will focus on execution speed, accountability, clear goals, and measurable metrics. We will concentrate on the success of the Ethereum mainnet protocol: the Ethereum mainnet will continue to exist as a globally neutral network and a trusted trustless protocol.

We are not only focused on the mainnet but also on the entire ecosystem—supporting L2 projects that drive large-scale applications, bringing more convenience and value to users. The mainnet will serve as a solid pillar and flexible support network behind all transactions and coordination mechanisms.

This journey is exciting—we are experiencing an unprecedented technological and social transformation, and we will move forward with a group of builders who possess both vision and pragmatism.

In the coming year, we will focus on scaling the Ethereum mainnet (L1), supporting the scalability and security of L2 chains through optimal architecture, and enhancing user confidence. At the same time, we will strive to make the entire inter-chain ecosystem feel like a cohesive whole, optimizing user experience, design, and interoperability through excellent engineering and cutting-edge research.

Hsiao-Wei's Message

In the coming months, my top priority is to strengthen the foundation's operational capacity to better support the growth of the ecosystem. A foundation that is adaptive and effective can better serve Ethereum's long-term mission.

As our direction becomes clearer, one of our goals is to better support the application layer of Ethereum. We will support builders and users by improving developer and user experiences, clarifying standards, strengthening sub-ecosystems, and facilitating the process from ideas to applications.

We are working to optimize planning, prioritization, and coordination mechanisms within the foundation and with the broader ecosystem, ensuring that all efforts align with community needs and the cypherpunk spirit of Ethereum.

Of course, strengthening the foundation is just part of the transformation. What truly drives the ecosystem forward is the continuous energy and creativity from the global Ethereum community.

A Future Built Together

Ethereum is not an island; it is a vibrant, organically growing network that brings together community members, builders, researchers, artists, educators, and dreamers. It is global, diverse, and proud of its decentralization.

The creativity and resilience of the ecosystem continually inspire us. The foundation will continue to provide support where it is most needed, while also proactively stepping back as the ecosystem thrives on its own. This is a community-led future.

There are limitless possibilities ahead. Ethereum has already achieved many breakthroughs in technology, finance, governance, and more. To everyone who is building, teaching, researching, experimenting, and imagining the future—thank you!

We are collectively creating a great endeavor that transcends any single team, project, or generation. It is an honor to walk alongside you, and we are filled with anticipation for the future.