Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced this Sunday, May 24th, that his authority within the Ethereum Foundation (EF) board of directors will continue to be intentionally reduced. “Honestly, that’s what I want,” he wrote in a lengthy post explaining the organization’s new direction and his place within it.
Buterin clarified: No special authority over other members of the board and said that their participation in the transition was mainly for technical questions. As mentioned above, Aya Miyaguchi will be responsible for operational execution of the process. The directory is also being expanded.
EF is the leading nonprofit organization supporting the development of the Ethereum protocol, the second largest blockchain network by market capitalization. According to Buterin, it controls just 0.16% of all ETH in circulation.It forces resources to be focused on activities that would not occur without direct intervention.
Smaller, more specialized organizations
Based on this criterion, EF will reduce the sale of ETH to extend its operational life and transfer activities that have value but are outside of its core mission to third parties. buterin We recognized that this meant we needed people with strong technical talent and alignment with the organization’s values. That’s what these activities need to attract outside capital, he said.
The new strategic axis focuses on what Buterin calls “CROPS”: censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security. Within that framework, he identified three priorities: formal validation of the protocol using AI, maintaining Ethereum’s unique consensus model, and minimizing intermediaries when sending transactions.
Along these lines, Buterin pointed out that: Aspects of support for ETH as an asset that are outside the scope of EFand these tasks require “other actors”, some of whom are likely to have more ETH than the Foundation itself. As indicated, EF is beginning to consider how to engage with these organizations and provide initial support.
Internal tensions and personnel changes
The announcement comes at a time when the organization is under pressure. According to data cited by X’s MAD Cripto account, eight EF engineers will leave by 2026, with five leaving in May alone. Among them is Karl Beek, the designer of the beacon chain. Departure is scheduled for May 29th. Meanwhile, the price of ETH has fallen 57% from its all-time high.
This announcement sparked a reaction within the ecosystem. Ethereum Daily Account denied the theory that EF is responsible for the cryptocurrency’s price fluctuations.
According to that publication,The Foundation controls a minimal portion of the total supplyMeanwhile, companies like Bitmine, a company associated with investor Tom Lee, own about 4.37% of all ETH, which is about 27 times more than EF itself. “Let EF protect the technology. Let the real whales protect the prices,” the report concludes.
Researcher Andy Hall suggested Buterin’s bet faces a competitive dilemma. When the EF limits itself by principles, so do other organizations that do not have such limits. They can take up your space. Buterin responded that the best-case scenario would be for an organization with strong values to gain real support from the community. He says this is the type of support money can’t buy.
La EF We hope to stabilize the new form over the next few months.. Buterin described the ship as “a smaller, more opinionated, more durable ship” and reaffirmed that giving up superiority on board is not a concession, but rather a required decision.
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