ACD After Hours: ACDT #70 🌙

AI and the future of Ethereum governance

Good evening,

Two weeks ago, I shared my views on the role of AI in the creator economy.

Tonight, I’m discussing the role of AI in Ethereum governance.

I fully support the idea that AI tools such as OpenAI’s OpenClaw and Anthropic’s Claude, among others, should play a meaningful role in decentralized decision-making—particularly at the organizational and individual levels. AI can make developers more efficient, improve coordination, and streamline workflow across the ecosystem.

But when it comes to shaping the evolution of Ethereum itself, I’m more skeptical of the benefits of AI.

Ethereum’s core disagreements aren’t about processing more information or optimizing faster. They’re about what the protocol should be optimized for. Until there’s clarity on that, AI won’t resolve the most fundamental tensions in governance.

Let’s get into it.

Yours truly,

Christine D. Kim

P.S. If you disagree (or strongly agree) with my takes in these newsletters, don’t let the discussion stop at your inbox. Please take your thoughts and comments to the subscriber chat! Friendly debate is what the chat is created for. I welcome continued discussion on these topics with subscribers. (A premium subscription is required for access to the chat.)

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🗒️ Call Minutes

(For background on the ACD process and jargon used on these calls, refer to the Ethereum Governance 101 document in the ACD Toolkit.)

First, here’s a quick summary of the latest Ethereum developer call, All Core Developers Testing (ACDT) #70.

Blob-Devnet-0

• The Ethereum Foundation (EF) EthPandaOps team has launched a devnet to test implementations of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8136, Cell-Level Deltas for Data Column Broadcast.

• Consensus layer (CL) client teams are encouraged to join the devnet, blob-devnet-0, as soon as their EIP-8136 implementations are ready for testing.

Bal-Devnet-2

• The Erigon team expects to join Bal-Devnet-2 by the end of this week.

Bal-Devnet-3

• EF Protocol Prototyping Team Lead Toni Wahrstatter noted an upcoming change to EIP-7928 specifications. To prevent denial-of-service attacks on block-level access lists (BALs), developers will cap list size based on the block gas limit, among other protocol-enforced variables.

• Wahrstatter said he is ideating ways to simplify the calculation for the cap, and encouraged client teams to review the changes finalized so far for EIP-7928 on Github. He noted these changes will likely not be ready for testing on Bal-Devnet-3.

• Wahrstatter also requested client feedback on changes to the execution API JSON-RPC method for EIP-7928. He noted these changes should ideally be ready for testing on Bal-Devnet-3.

• Developers are testing new versions of the Ethereum Wire Protocol on “nft-devnet-10.” Developers reconfirmed that these versions, eth/70 and eth/71, will be included for testing on Bal-Devnet-3.

• Developers aim to launch Bal-Devnet-3 around March 4.

Epbs-Devnet-0

• Nimbus, Lighthouse, Teku, and Lodestar reported progress on their implementations of EIP-7732, which enshrines proposer builder separation (ePBS). However, their implementations will not be ready for testing on a devnet over the next few days. Developers agreed to share another progress update on the next ACDT call.

Perf-Devnet-2

• Perf-devnet-2 is a dedicated test network for developers to stress-test Ethereum clients. The network is currently unusable as no clients have been able to sync to the chain. Developers discussed a strategy for restarting the devnet.

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🌕 That’s all for my summary of ACDT #70. Continue reading for my insights on Ethereum development and governance. To read the rest of the newsletter, make sure you are signed up for a premium subscription:

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🔎 Insights

(Quotes featured in this section may be edited for grammar and clarity. For more information on the people quoted in this section, refer to the ACD Call Directory in the ACD Toolkit.)

Shortly after announcing that he would step down as Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Tomasz Stańczak shared his views on elevating the role of AI in Ethereum’s future.

Tomasz K. Stańczak@tkstanczak

5 Steps to Make Ethereum Driven by LLMs 1/ Validator operators delegate to agents the decision-making on accepting/rejecting network upgrades and setting the parameters. 2/ EIP authors use LLMs to create and submit EIPs. 3/ EIP editors use LLMs to review and approve EIPs. 4/ All

6:07 PM · Feb 15, 2026 · 52.2K Views

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75 Replies · 36 Reposts · 390 Likes

He followed up on Sunday, suggesting that this vision could become reality within the next two to three years.

Tomasz K. Stańczak@tkstanczak

I expect it should happen over the next 24-36 months and we should have the relevant tooling / integrations finished by Q3 (the earlier the better)

Tomasz K. Stańczak @tkstanczak

5 Steps to Make Ethereum Driven by LLMs 1/ Validator operators delegate to agents the decision-making on accepting/rejecting network upgrades and setting the parameters. 2/ EIP authors use LLMs to create and submit EIPs. 3/ EIP editors use LLMs to review and approve EIPs. 4/ All

6:36 PM · Feb 15, 2026 · 16.4K Views

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10 Replies · 9 Reposts · 153 Likes

Stańczak hasn’t formally announced what he’ll be working on next, but his recent posts suggest it may involve AI infrastructure for Ethereum.