Ethereum Foundation Laysoff Staff And Rebrands Core Team

In response to the growing criticism around its leadership and strategic direction, Ethereum Foundation has announced a massive shakedown.

The Ethereum community has warned for over a year that a failure to address key technical hurdles could threaten Ethereum's status as an industry leader, and to this, the organisation has already responded, starting with a change of name.

Moving forward, the organisation will be rebranding its Protocol Research & Development division under the simplied name “Protocol.”

EF calls this a messy process, as they try their best to respond to demands that are hard to articulate and even harder to fulfill.

The Foundation marketed the move as a pivotal moment for Ethereum, as advances in zero-knowledge rollups (zkEVMs) and layer-2 technologies push the blockchain closer to large-scale adoption.

Ethereum Foundation has also listed three of their core priorities moving forward—scaling Ethereum’s Layer 1, expanding blobspace for rollups, and dramatically improving user experience—the restructured team is poised to deliver faster and more impactful innovation.

The move also brings along a wave of leadership changes and staff layoffs, as the organization doubles down on its mission to transform Ethereum into the backbone of global financial infrastructure.

However, Ethereum Foundation did not disclose how many staff were affected by the layoffs. In the blog post, the organisation wrote

"Some members of PR&D won't be continuing with the Ethereum Foundation. We hope these individuals continue in Ethereum ecosystem and encourage others building out their teams to seek them out."

Longtime core developers such as Tim Beiko, Alex Stokes and Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf were formally assigned to each of the focus areas.

The Swiss-based nonprofit has also appointed Hsiao-Wei Wang and Nethermind founder Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors to lead its workforce to better align with community expectations.

Former executive director Aya Miyaguchi, who led the foundation for seven years, now steps into the newly created role of president, marking a new era in Ethereum’s governance and vision.

Hsiao shared his optimism about the revamped structure’s potential to accelerate Ethereum’s evolution, a sentiment echoed by Tim Beiko, who proclaimed

“The world is ready for the world computer. It’s on us to deliver it.”

As Ethereum enters this pivotal chapter, all eyes are on the foundation to see if its bold restructuring will propel the network to new heights.