TL;DR
The Ethereum Foundation has completed a months-long restructuring effort that reshapes its internal organization, reduces its workforce, and sets a new direction for its long-term responsibilities. The foundation said the changes give the Foundation the structure, activities, and people needed to execute on critical tasks while supporting departing colleagues as they transition to new roles across the ecosystem.
The Ethereum Foundation introduced a five-cluster operational model that organizes work across the protocol layer, access layer, user layer, community layer, and institutional layer. Additional operations and management clusters support leadership and internal coordination. Each domain has its own accountability framework and internal structure tailored to its mission. The Foundation said the protocol cluster will focus on hardening and scaling the base protocol, advancing long-horizon research such as post-quantum security, zkEVM development, and L1 privacy. The access layer will ensure users can interact with Ethereum without relying on unverifiable intermediaries, guided by a zero option principle that preserves intermediary-free paths.
As part of the reorganization, the Ethereum Foundation now has 54 fewer staff, representing roughly 20% of its workforce. Departing colleagues will receive severance based on the higher of one month per year worked or the locally mandated amount. The Ethereum Foundation will also provide ecosystem placement assistance and small grants to help cover transition costs, such as career coaching. Many of those leaving are expected to continue contributing to Ethereum from outside the organization.
The restructuring concludes 18 months marked by leadership turnover and the emergence of new research groups. Several senior figures, including co-executive directors and protocol leads, have departed. Meanwhile, Ethlabs, a new Ethereum R&D organization backed by prominent ecosystem participants, launched this week and is connected to former Ethereum Foundation researchers. The Ethereum Foundation said it will share more details on how each cluster operates and how the ecosystem can engage with the new structure in the coming weeks.
