Ethereum has entered its second decade after 11 years of operation. Over the past year, the public blockchain has been simultaneously advancing protocol upgrades and undergoing profound adjustments at the foundation level. For Ethereum, the changes are not only occurring within the network itself, but also within the core institutions that have long played a coordinating role.
The foundation has made concentrated adjustments over the past year.
Over the past few months, questions surrounding the Ethereum Foundation's efficiency, transparency, and priorities have continued to intensify. As other public blockchains accelerate their competition for developers and users, calls within the community for the foundation to improve its execution capabilities have noticeably increased.
Against this backdrop, the foundation initiated a large-scale restructuring. Reports indicate that nine senior members have left the foundation in the past seven months, including co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak. The foundation has also reduced its staff size by approximately 20% through layoffs.
In March of this year, the foundation released its first official mission statement, proposing a principle framework called CROPS, covering censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security. The foundation also stated that one of its long-term goals is to reduce its direct impact on the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing the ecosystem to rely more on distributed entities for operation.
Functional decomposition begins to be implemented
This approach has been reflected in the organizational restructuring. Independent entities such as EthLabs, Ethereum Systems, and Ethereum Institutional have been spun off from the original system, each undertaking different areas of ecosystem work. The foundation remains responsible for protocol research and public goods funding, but some responsibilities that were originally concentrated in a single institution are being outsourced.
This also means that Ethereum's emphasis on decentralization is extending from the protocol layer to the organizational layer. As the ecosystem expands, the foundation no longer attempts to cover all matters, but instead delegates more execution and development tasks to independent teams.
Agreement upgrades and institutional adoption will proceed in tandem.
Ethereum's technological roadmap did not stall during the organizational restructuring. The Fusaka upgrade has been underway, with one of its core changes being PeerDAS. This data availability improvement primarily targets Layer 2 scaling, helping to enhance network processing efficiency.
- Nine senior members have left the foundation in the past seven months.
- The foundation's staff size has been reduced by approximately 20%.
- The US spot Ethereum ETF has seen a cumulative net inflow of over $11.23 billion.
Meanwhile, Wall Street's use of Ethereum is also changing. BlackRock continues to expand its presence in the Ethereum ecosystem, and JPMorgan is also advancing its blockchain-based settlement project. Institutions are no longer just viewing ETH as a configurable asset, but are also beginning to use Ethereum as the underlying network for issuing and settling financial products.
Overall, Ethereum's 11th year unfolded along two parallel lines: internally, the foundation underwent restructuring and a reduction in its role; externally, institutional adoption and its enhanced status as a financial infrastructure increased. Entering its second decade, Ethereum faces new challenges beyond just scaling and performance; it also includes maintaining its decentralized governance direction as the ecosystem continues to expand.
