Vitalik Buterin Reveals: Major Changes Are Coming to Ethereum — It Had Been Heavily Criticized

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced the completion of a months-long restructuring process and the transition to a new organizational structure.

According to the foundation’s statement, the new structure will consist of five main working clusters encompassing protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers. In addition to these structures, an operations unit and management support teams will also be included in the new organizational chart.

As part of a restructuring, 54 team members at the Ethereum Foundation will be leaving the organization. This number represents approximately 20 percent of the foundation’s total workforce. EF stated that affected employees will receive severance pay and support during the transition period. The foundation said the new structure aims to make the organization more focused and leaner.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also commented on the matter, stating that the Ethereum Foundation has reduced its budget by approximately 40 percent this year. Buterin noted that this decision was not easy, adding that the foundation aims to transform into an institution operating on a long-term, donation-based model.

According to Buterin, EF is spending an average of around 15 percent of its remaining funds annually before 2026, and aims to reduce this rate to around 5 percent annually after 2030. This transformation is said to be consistent with the treasury management policy announced last year.

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Buterin stated that the laid-off employees had made significant contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem for years, and that this process could not be presented simply as a “productivity increase.” He added that the departing employees were highly qualified engineers who had worked on the Ethereum protocol for many years and had added significant value to the ecosystem, both technically and humanly.

The statement also highlighted Ethereum’s comprehensive transformation plan, dubbed the “Strawmap,” in terms of its long-term technical roadmap. Buterin stated that this plan aims to revamp many fundamental elements of the Ethereum protocol, including consensus, proof-of-work systems, privacy, account model, and state structure. Buterin described this process as Ethereum’s third major evolution after the Merge.

Significant changes will be made in some areas as part of the restructuring. The multi-client model will evolve from a purely redundancy-focused structure to a more specialized model. EF is considering the possibility of using more AI-powered formal verification methods in some security strategies.

Buterin stated that the Ethereum Foundation supports a “lean and complete” approach for Ethereum in the long term, arguing that after Strawmap is finalized, the focus should shift to security fixes and small, high-value changes to the protocol. According to Buterin, this approach could allow Ethereum to maintain its decentralized and compromise-resistant nature without requiring massive budgets. He also indicated that the foundation would allocate fewer resources to large projects outside of ETH. While acknowledging that he might take on some such projects with his personal funds, Buterin stated that the foundation’s corporate activities would also become more limited and focused.

*This is not investment advice.

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