The Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced on the 2nd through its official blog that it will reorganize its research and development team, accompanied by partial layoffs. The official explanation is to focus resources more on solving core design challenges of the Ethereum protocol, which is seen as a major strategic shift to maintain its competitiveness in the blockchain field.
Ethereum is standing on the edge of a major breakthrough. The rapid progress of zkEVM allows us to restructure Layer 1 while achieving scalability, verifiability, security, and censorship resistance. Layer 2 is solidifying, beginning to actively engage users, meet demands, and is eager to build upon Ethereum as a trust foundation.
In short, the era of the world computer is ready to take the stage.
Resource Focus on Three Core Domains
According to the announcement, the original "Protocol Research and Development" (PR&D) department will be renamed Protocol. Its work focus will clearly shift to three priority areas:
- Expand the scalability of the Ethereum base layer (L1)
- Expand the blobspace data space related to Layer 2 development
- And improve overall user experience.
EF states that the key to implementing these strategies lies in community trust leaders. Therefore, they will more clearly assign responsible persons to enhance plan transparency and accountability:
- L1 Expansion: Tim Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs
- L2 Expansion: Alex Stokes and Francesco D'Amato
- UX Improvement: Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf
- Dankrad Feist will serve as a strategic advisor for the three main lines, helping to advance related plans.
Organizational Adjustment and Personnel Changes
The foundation also confirmed that this reorganization will result in some original PR&D team members leaving. The foundation stated in its announcement:
"Some members of PR&D will no longer continue at the Ethereum Foundation, and we sincerely thank them for their contribution to Ethereum."
Before this restructuring, the Ethereum Foundation had completed leadership adjustments on March 1st this year, appointing new co-executive directors. Founder Vitalik Buterin will focus more on setting long-term vision, with daily operations handed over to the new management, partially addressing community concerns about the foundation's management and technical development direction.
Accelerating Technical Upgrades and Node Optimization
According to the current technical route, expanding blobspace is the foundation's current priority development item. The Pectra hard fork completed in May 2025 has doubled the target number of blobs per block from 3 to 6 (with a maximum of 9). This provides more ample data availability for Layer 2 Rollups, significantly reducing transaction fees and improving overall network capacity.
The foundation is also committed to improving node operation experience, such as promoting the EIP-4444 proposal to limit historical data storage, aiming to lower the hardware threshold for running Ethereum nodes and further enhance the network's decentralization characteristics. The future Fusaka hard fork is also expected to further increase blob numbers.
In summary, the Ethereum Foundation's recent organizational restructuring and technical upgrades reflect its response to market competition and community questioning, and align with the blockchain industry's trend towards a more streamlined, efficient, and focused operational model to better adapt to the continued volatility of the cryptocurrency market.
ETH Returns to $2,600
As for the price, against the backdrop of Bitcoin's rebound, ETH has also returned to $2,600 at the time of writing, currently reported at $2,620.
