Ethereum Foundation's "Game of Thrones", where will the foundation's major reforms go?

Author: Weilin, PANews

In this cycle, the price and ecological performance of Ethereum have been slow to meet the expectations of many users. Recently, its attention has gradually been taken away by Solana, which has become popular due to memecoins such as TRUMP. Behind the complaints, the executive director of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) was accused of being "inefficient", and the foundation's periodic sell-off of ETH also made it the target of public criticism.

On January 21, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted two consecutive posts on the X platform, criticizing calls for the resignation of Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi and refuting concerns about the future centralization of Ethereum. This has triggered widespread controversy within and outside the Ethereum community.

Vitalik takes a tough stance: I am the one who decides on the new EF

leadership team

According to the EF website, the board of directors has only three members: Vitalik Buterin, Aya Miyaguchi and Patrick Storchenegger.

On January 21, Vitalik made it clear in his X Platform post that he was the only person to decide on the leadership team of the Ethereum Foundation.

He stressed: "No, that's not how this game is played. It's me who decides on the new EF leadership team. One of the goals of the current reforms is to establish a 'proper board' for EF, but until then, it's up to me. decision.” He further said that any act of exerting pressure will destroy the working environment of Ethereum’s top developers. "And you're reducing the likelihood that I'll have any interest in 'doing what you want.'"

In a subsequent post, Vitalik clarified the future decentralization direction of the Ethereum Foundation. He pointed out, "The future of world computing is decentralized. EF is just a part of world computing. Maybe the organization that some people want to reform and bring back to a higher level is not actually EF, but Consensys (or a similar third-party organization) ”

Vitalik emphasized that the EF should not "play the middle" but should confidently represent those features of Ethereum that it can effectively represent, and intentionally create and cultivate open spaces for other organizations to represent other aspects of Ethereum. Arguably, some of these aspects are better suited to exist in a for-profit format. "

The comments come amid calls from the community for Danny Ryan, a former researcher and developer at the Ethereum Foundation, to be promoted. Danny Ryan is widely praised for his important contributions in Ethereum's transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. However, Danny Ryan, who has worked at the Ethereum Foundation for seven years, announced his withdrawal due to personal reasons in 2024. This news has always made many supporters feel very regretful.

Ryan’s supporters believe that his professional abilities are aligned with Ethereum’s long-term goals, making him a strong candidate for leadership, although Vitalik insists on maintaining control of the foundation’s decisions.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi has faced criticism and even online abuse from some community members on the Not as good as expected. Before 2018, Aya Miyaguchi was responsible for operations in Japan on the Kraken trading platform.

High-profile cryptocurrency trader CoinMamba, known for his criticism of the Ethereum Foundation, publicly called for Miyaguchi to resign. In this regard, Vitalik categorically rejected this proposal. Vitalik also pointed out comments from several other X users, calling them "pure evil" because they contained vulgar memes, calls for bullying, and even "kill Aya."

Nonetheless, market commentator abstractXBT expressed concerns about the centralizing nature of this hardline stance. They suggested that foundations should focus more on practical solutions, such as increasing support for developers through hackathons and grants, rather than getting bogged down in philosophical debates about leadership.

Ethereum Foundation ushering in “massive changes to leadership structure”

Earlier, on January 18, Vitalik Buterin issued an article in the face of controversy, saying that large-scale changes to the leadership structure of the Ethereum Foundation are currently underway. This change has lasted for nearly a year. Some of these changes have already been implemented and announced, while some are still in progress.

The reform wants to achieve the following goals:

• Improve the technical expertise of the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership;
• Improving two-way communication and connection between the Ethereum Foundation leadership and new and existing participants in the ecosystem, the Ethereum Foundation is responsible for supporting: users (individuals and institutions), application developers, wallets, L2;
• Introducing fresh talents to improve execution capabilities and speed;
• More actively support application developers to ensure that important values ​​and inalienable rights (especially privacy, open source, resistance to censorship) are a reality for users, including at the application layer;
• Continued increased use of decentralization and privacy technology and the Ethereum chain, including for payments and money management.

Vitalik also made it clear that there will not be any ideological/atmospheric change implemented in the future; nor will he actively lobby regulators and powerful politicians (especially in the US, but really anywhere, especially big countries) and risk It risks damaging Ethereum's status as a global neutral platform; it will not become an arena for vested interests; it will not become a highly centralized organization, or even become the "protagonist" of Ethereum.

The foundation is stuck in selling coins, or has made changes to

participate in DeFi

The Ethereum Foundation's financial operations, especially its continuous selling of ETH on the chain, have recently become the focus of criticism from the community. According to data from Spot On Chain, the Ethereum Foundation ushered in the first Ethereum sale of the new year on January 8, 2025, selling 100 ETH and receiving 329,463 DAI tokens. On-chain data shows that throughout 2024, EF sold a total of 4,466 ETH, earning $12.61 million, with an average price of $2,823. Many KOLs and investors in the community blame the decline in ETH prices on the foundation's sell-off.

Vitalik responded that there are two reasons why the foundation did not choose to pledge ETH: The first reason is regulatory issues. Considering Ethereum is one of the largest crypto protocols by market capitalization, staking large amounts of ETH could attract unnecessary regulatory scrutiny. Such actions could raise questions about whether Ethereum constitutes a security, a conundrum that many crypto companies have faced for years.

The second reason is that staking ETH could be considered “taking a stance against any future contentious hard fork.” In this case, Buterin was referring to possible disagreements within the ecosystem that could lead to one side of the community favoring a certain version of the blockchain. If a foundation chooses to stake its tokens using one blockchain over another, it will look like the foundation is backing that chain. Vitalik Buterin acknowledged that while regulatory concerns have lessened over the years, the second reason remains.

Additionally, he explained that ETH withdrawals may be more time-consuming than selling the tokens directly. This is usually due to the higher number of validators using the chain. Therefore, if only the foundation performs the ETH withdrawal, it would take 2.6 days to complete the process.

Despite Vitalik's tough stance, the foundations he influences have clearly heeded some of the advice. On January 21, the Ethereum Foundation announced the establishment of a wallet address and began to participate in decentralized finance (DeFi). The organization plans to inject approximately $150 million worth of ETH into the wallet, but noted that it may take several days to set up.

Hsiao-Wei Wang, who was recently appointed to the leadership position of the foundation, posted on But please be patient; due to signing delays, this will take a few days to process and the Ethereum Foundation will use this new wallet to participate in the DeFi ecosystem.”

The community teases the establishment of a “second foundation” and calls

for more transparency in the foundation

In response to the controversy, on January 22, Konstantin Lomashuk, co-founder of Lido and founder of P2P.org, forwarded a post suggesting the establishment of a "Second Foundation." But then, he clarified, “Actually, the second foundation has not yet been established.” He went on to write: “Ethereum is the ultimate world computer, and every Ethereum enthusiast can help it grow, evolve and succeed. If For a second foundation to really be established, it must have a clear goal to complement the tremendous work of current contributors. I appreciate everyone's support and think we need more organizations to contribute to Ethereum."

Some Ethereum core developers also made their voices heard, and some even quit out of disappointment. According to news on January 22, Eric Conner, the core developer of Ethereum and co-author of EIP-1559, posted on the X platform: "I am no longer a member of .eth (Ethereum domain name). Maybe one day, those leaders will return Aligned with the community, but for now, I'm moving on, and I really wish Ethereum the best of luck."

Anthony DOnofrio, a founding member of Ethereum, also published a commentary article on CoinDesk, the article "The Ethereum Foundation has lost its way." The article calls for leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation. He said: “To ensure its future, the Ethereum Foundation must transform from a passive institution to a proactive vision promoter.” DOnofrio pointed out that the Ethereum Foundation is a contradiction; although it is committed to decentralization, its The operation method is centralized, with a director, financial department, paid developers and inner circle; although these structures are necessary for coordination, they conflict with Ethereum's decentralized concept.

He noted that the Ethereum Foundation, in its current form, aims to minimize internal and external threats but has lost its original vision. Ethereum’s next phase will require more than just technical research and coordination meetings. It requires visionary leadership – someone who understands not just the technology but its wider social, philosophical and political implications.

In addition, DOnofrio called on the Ethereum Foundation to provide more transparency and strengthen ties with the community, seize opportunities to engage with legislators in the current favorable U.S. political climate, and while maintaining political neutrality, the Foundation Frameworks that encourage compliance and innovation can be created or promoted.

Brianq, an analyst at on-chain analysis company Santiment, is more optimistic, saying that although Ethereum (ETH) has recently fallen by 4.7% in market value, which is far inferior to the 36.9% and 32.2% gains of XRP and Solana, it has triggered market sentiment towards Vitalik Buterin selling ETH and going The degree of centralization and modularization strategy are controversial, but under short-term pressure, the number of active addresses of Ethereum has increased and its market share has been stable. The long-term strategy is considered to help it maintain its leading position in the blockchain field. Rising negative sentiment on social media may provide opportunities for contrarian investors.

At the same time, Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Consensys, posted: "Vitalik One of Buterin's greatest attributes is the way he makes decisions when a problem arises, he listens and gathers information, weighs all the factors, and makes a decision when he feels that the best way forward is after weighing most of the necessary data. By the time he hears us all, things are moving forward and threats of harm or attempts to coerce are deeply disturbing and counterproductive. The Ethereum Foundation (EF), Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), and Consensys have multiple ongoing projects that will reshape how Ethereum 'comes to market' in the near future. There will be so many high-value plans coming to light soon that it will be dizzying for you to stay calm and not lose your mind before the wave starts.”

At present, from Vitalik's response to the controversy to the foundation's announcement of major reforms, the Ethereum Foundation is facing a debate on power structure, decentralization, financial management and other aspects. As the reform advances, how the foundation balances the interests of all parties and promotes the development of the Ethereum ecosystem on the basis of ensuring the concept of decentralization will be the key to future development.