Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has indicated that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is moving toward a smaller, more focused role within the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Responding to mounting concerns about the Foundation’s direction and influence, Buterin emphasized that EF is “not a center of Ethereum” but rather “one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes.”
Smaller Ship
In a recent post on X, Buterin said the foundation’s board is expanding while his personal influence within the organization continues to decline—a change he welcomes. He noted that EF President Aya Miyaguchi has overseen much of the transition work, while his own contributions have been concentrated on technical matters.
Buterin observed that the Foundation improved its operational efficiency and execution in 2025. Still, he became increasingly concerned by criticism suggesting EF’s actions did not fully align with Ethereum’s core values of decentralization, privacy, and its role as a “sanctuary technology.”
He argued EF should not become a centralized authority, pointing out the Foundation holds roughly 0.16% of the total ETH supply—far smaller than some rival blockchain foundations that reportedly control between 10% and 50% of their networks’ tokens. Buterin also reminded readers that EF was created to accomplish a limited set of objectives tied to Ethereum’s early development stages—Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, and Serenity—which concluded in 2022.
Going forward, Buterin said the Foundation will prioritize longevity over expansion and narrow its activities to those essential for maintaining Ethereum as a censorship-resistant, open, private, and secure system. That refocus will require hard choices, including encouraging respected contributors and key initiatives to operate outside the Foundation to attract external capital.
He cautioned against competing solely on raw speed and scalability, arguing that such a path risks mediocrity. Instead, Buterin said Ethereum should pursue high-impact technical goals: striving for a provably bug-free protocol through AI-assisted formal verification, refining consensus design, and reducing dependence on intermediaries that influence which transactions get included.
Buterin also affirmed that these long-term goals remain compatible with scaling and high throughput achieved via Layer 2 networks and other optimizations.
“EF will be a smaller ship than in previous years, a more opinionated one – in some cases more opinionated in ways that might be difficult to comprehend – but a longer-lasting one, and one suited to making sure that Ethereum brings something meaningful to the world.”
High-Profile Exits
The Foundation has attracted heightened scrutiny in recent months after several high-profile departures, including Tomasz Stańczak, Tim Beiko, Josh Stark, and Barnabé Monnot. Community discussion intensified as multiple exits occurred in a short span, prompting speculation about internal instability and disagreements over EF’s evolving role.
ETH investor Ryan Berckmans argued that the departures primarily reflected differing strategic approaches, leadership transitions, and organizational restructuring, rather than a broader loss of confidence in Ethereum itself.