Ethereum community buries the hatchet
Ethereum Foundation shakes up leadership as internal rifts settle
Cassette Bleue/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
The Crypto Twitter version of internecine warfare in Ethereum circles has come to a close.
The Ethereum Foundation has announced a significant leadership restructuring. Aya Miyaguchi, who has served as executive director since 2018, previously announced her transition to the role of president. In her new capacity, Miyaguchi aims to enhance the foundation’s institutional relationships and broaden the reach of its vision and culture.
That left the executive director position to fill. The foundation announced Saturday the appointment of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors, effective March 17.
Wang, a core researcher at the foundation for seven years, contributed significantly to the development of the Ethereum beacon chain and has been active in community-building efforts in Taiwan. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind — one of Ethereum’s major execution clients — brings extensive experience in engineering and organizational development.
EF’s loudest critics had lobbied for former Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan to fill the position, but in a coordinated announcement, Ryan signaled he would instead join the new Etherealize project as a co-founder.
Etherealize is focused on integrating Ethereum with institutional investors and Ryan expressed his commitment to establishing Ethereum’s relevance in global finance.
“The world is ready to come onchain, and we’re here to do the hard work necessary to make it happen,” he said.
These leadership changes reflect a move toward unity and strategic alignment. The EF resisted calls to get more involved on the commercial and marketing side of the movement, preferring its philosophy of “subtraction” — which centered around thoughtfully distributing power and responsibilities to avoid centralization. The staffing moves are seen as part of Ethereum’s transition from an early-stage project to a robust, permissionless and censorship-resistant base layer of global financial infrastructure.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- Blockworks Daily: Unpacking crypto and the markets.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
