What a small EF means for Ethereum
Plus: ACDC #181 call summary and Ethereum issuance debates 🌙
Good evening,
The cat’s out of the bag.
We finally know what has been going on at the Ethereum Foundation for the last few months. They’ve been cutting one-fifth of their workforce. We also now know why both Tom Lee and Joe Lubin were unfazed by the Foundation’s downsizing. They are backing a new Foundation called EthLabs.
While all of this is generally positive news for the Ethereum ecosystem, it’s not really news that helps the longer-term picture for Ethereum’s value.
Below, I explain why.
And based on the feedback I’ve been receiving from readers, many of you will be happy to see that I explain why directly below, without first diving into some of my dryer content summarizing Ethereum development.
Starting this week, I’ll be relying exclusively on Forkcast to give you the summary of the latest All Core Developers (ACD) call. You’ll find a link to it further down below in tonight’s newsletter.
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
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What a small EF means for Ethereum
After months of little to no communication about the slew of employees leaving the organization, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) finally announced on Tuesday that these departures have been part of “a months-long process of reorganization” to reduce spending and narrow the organization’s focus.
In a blog post, the EF shared that over the past few months, they have let go of 54 employees, cutting down the organization’s headcount by 20%.
Vitalik Buterin, Board Member of the EF and co-founder of Ethereum, added that the organization’s annual operating budget will be reduced by 40% this year as part of an earlier announced shift toward an endowment model, where the Foundation gradually reduces annual spending from roughly 15% of its remaining treasury to closer to 5% over time.
A smaller EF, not necessarily a narrower EF
It’s clear now that the reorganization and recent departures at the EF have been motivated by efforts to lower costs and extend the Foundation’s runway.
However, the details of the reorganization do not indicate any changes in the Foundation’s focus or mission. The Foundation remains committed to stewarding all of Ethereum, from the core protocol layer up.
In their blog post on Tuesday, the Foundation said remaining staff, roughly 170 employees, have been reorganized across five domains of work:
