Vitalik Buterin Announces Major Reforms for Ethereum Foundation Leadership

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has announced significant changes to the leadership structure of the Ethereum Foundation, aiming to enhance technical expertise and improve collaboration with developers and contributors within the ecosystem.
The announcement, made on January 18, emphasized a renewed focus on decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance, while steering clear of political lobbying or ideological shifts.
These changes come after a challenging 2024, during which the Ethereum Foundation faced criticism over its spending, roadmap execution, and personnel decisions. A notable controversy involved researchers at the Foundation, including Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, who took advisory roles at the EigenLayer Foundation, raising questions about conflicts of interest. In response, the Ethereum Foundation implemented a conflict-of-interest policy in May 2024. Drake later stepped down from his advisory role in November and apologized, pledging to avoid such positions in the future.
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The year also saw the launch of the Dencun upgrade in March, which drastically reduced transaction fees on Ethereum’s layer-2 networks by up to 99%. This sparked rapid growth in layer-2 solutions, with L2Beat reporting 55 rollups now operating on the Ethereum network. However, the expansion led to concerns about potential revenue cannibalization on Ethereum’s base layer, as network revenue plunged 99% during the summer. Despite the drop, revenues recovered to pre-upgrade levels by the end of the year.
As Ethereum navigates these shifts, Buterin’s leadership changes aim to address past challenges and set a more sustainable path forward, balancing innovation with the ecosystem’s foundational principles.