Author: Nancy, PANews

In just a few months, several core members have left the Ethereum Foundation (EF), further dampening the already low morale of the Ethereum community, especially given the current relatively weak performance of ETH prices.

During EF's critical transformation period, a group of veteran executives left.

In mid-2025, facing slow execution efficiency, insufficient ecosystem support, and long-standing doubts about governance transparency, the Ethereum Foundation initiated an internal restructuring, reorganizing its research and development team and publicly announcing layoffs for the first time. This move was seen by outsiders as a belated self-correction.

In March 2026, EF released a 38-page mission statement. While reiterating Ethereum's core vision, the foundation explicitly stated that its role had shifted from "the first guardian" to "one of many guardians." To demonstrate its resolve, EF even created a meme of "SOURCE SEPPUKU LICENSE," indicating that if it failed to fulfill its commitments to Ethereum, it would "reape the consequences and end its own life."

However, while the restructuring of EF continues, core members are constantly leaving. Since February of this year, seven core members or senior contributors have left.

In February, Tomasz Stańczak announced his resignation as co-executive director of Ethereum Framework (EF), less than a year after taking office. During his tenure, he spearheaded developments in areas such as privacy protection, post-quantum security, and decentralized AI. He stated that the Ethereum ecosystem is now in a relatively healthy phase, and therefore he hopes to return to frontline product development, focusing on exploring the integration of AI and Ethereum. He also pointed out that his independent executive role within EF is gradually shrinking, and his continued tenure is more of a transitional handover. His successor is Bastian Aue, who joined EF in 2019. In contrast, less information is publicly available about Aue, who previously focused on key support roles such as organizational coordination and operational optimization.

About two months later, in mid-April 2026, Josh Stark, a key figure, announced his departure after seven years at EF. He had been deeply involved in many key Ethereum upgrades, including The Merge, Dencun, Fusaka, and Pectra, and served as co-chair of the trillion-dollar security initiative. He cited "planning to take a break and spend time with his family" as the reason for his departure.

On the same day, Trent Van Epps also announced his departure from EF. He had long been responsible for the organization and coordination of the Protocol Guild, promoting the development of funding mechanisms for Ethereum core developers, and participating in network upgrades and funding support. After leaving, he will focus on research into the Protocol Guild and the political economy of Ethereum. He had previously publicly stated that the connection between EF leadership and the Milady NFT series was "puzzling."

In May, Alex Stokes, co-head of Protocol research, announced a leave of absence. Subsequently, Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko, who had previously served as co-heads of Protocol Guild, as well as two senior researchers, Carl Beek and Julian Ma, also left, without disclosing their reasons.

While most departing members did not disclose their specific reasons for leaving, reports suggest that EF, based on its emphasized "anti-censorship principle," required internal members to sign a document called a Mandate, or face immediate termination. This principle emphasizes that no entity should interfere with legitimate use or influence system operation by establishing persistent and exclusive control over critical mechanisms. However, these claims have not yet been officially confirmed by EF.

However, the loss of talent 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 are paid 50% to 60% less than similar positions in the market, while high-performance new chains like Monad and leading L2 projects are poaching talent with salaries more than 10 times higher. He warned that if senior researchers familiar with the underlying protocol logic leave, Ethereum's critical roadmap will face the risk of substantial shutdown.

Protocol team changes leadership, exacerbating concerns about upgrade delays.

Within just four months, senior veterans from the executive to the research levels left one after another, further exacerbating the uncertainty of EF's reforms, especially the adjustments to the Protocol team.

The Protocol team is the core team responsible for the design, research, development, and coordination of the Ethereum base layer, covering areas such as security, cryptography, zkEVM, and peer-to-peer networks. As one of the core forces of EF, it has a significant impact on the long-term evolution, security, and scalability of the Ethereum protocol.

In response to personnel changes, EF also completed the restructuring of its Protocol team this month, appointing three new Protocol co-leaders: Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik Svantes. All three have been with EF for approximately two to seven years.

Will Corcoran is the Protocol Research Coordinator, focusing on cutting-edge research such as zkVM proof systems, post-quantum consensus, and Fast Confirmation Rule. He has experience in cross-team coordination and is familiar with the overall architecture.

Kev Wedderburn is the team leader of zkEVM. He has extensive experience in zero-knowledge proofs, zkEVM implementation, and the integration of research and engineering. He will continue to lead zkEVM-related work and promote the deep integration of the execution layer and zero-knowledge technology.

Fredrik Svantes is the Head of Security Research at Protocol and has long led core Ethereum security work, including the trillion-dollar security initiative, the Ethereum Bug Bounty program, and audit competition organization. He will be deeply involved in cross-team collaborations.

Under the leadership of the new team, Protocol will focus on the short-term upgrade and launch of Glamsterdam, prepare for the next Hegotá upgrade, and continue to promote the implementation of the Strawmap roadmap.

Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major network upgrade, with the core focus on improving the Ethereum mainnet's throughput. It plans to increase the gas cap from the current approximately 60 million to 200 million and adjust the transaction processing mechanism and state database management method.

However, the Glamsterdam upgrade, originally scheduled for June 2026, has been delayed. Based on the latest testnet progress and feedback from the Interop conference, the actual mainnet launch is more likely to be postponed to the third quarter of 2026. Therefore, some community members and developers are concerned that recent changes in key personnel may further impact the upgrade's pace and execution efficiency.

However, some argue that this round of personnel changes is a normal phenomenon in the EF restructuring process. Some members left after completing their phases of mission, while others adjusted to align with the strategic direction. Meanwhile, a new leadership has gradually taken over, and the core roadmap remains unchanged. More importantly, as the Ethereum ecosystem matures, EF itself is intentionally downplaying its central role. This helps reduce the risk of single-point control, alleviate external doubts about the foundation's influence, and further strengthen Ethereum's position as a neutral infrastructure.

This aligns with Vitalik's concept of "walkaway testing," which ensures that the protocol can still operate securely, predictably, and stably in the long term, even if the core developers completely withdraw and cease maintenance.