‘Heated’ Ethereum Foundation debate signals need for change — Joe Lubin

Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin has supported calls for an overhaul of the Ethereum Foundation and says that Consensys is ready to step up and play a more active role.

He told Cointelegraph that his for-profit company has hung back to avoid being accused of undue influence on the blockchain, but that recent events suggested “people still kind of rely on us to market Ethereum and to be the major champions for Ethereum.” 

“So, that surprised me, but also excited me, because we’re ready to get louder about that and, again, compete vigorously.”

The Ethereum community has been wracked with infighting over the past few weeks, with anger over the slow progress of the scaling roadmap and Ether’s (ETH) languishing price being taken out on a perceived lack of leadership by the Ethereum Foundation.

Much of the online criticism has been aimed at executive director Aya Miyaguchi, with a push to replace her with Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan.

While Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin said recently that leadership changes are coming, he also lashed out at trolls in a bombshell post on Jan. 21, revealing he’s still the sole person in charge of the Ethereum Foundation after a decade and stating that attacks on Miyaguchi make him less likely to give in.

Well-known Ethereum proponents, including EthHub founder Eric Conner and Antiprosynthesis, dropped their .eth handles in protest, though Antiprosynthesis added theirs back on Jan. 23.

“It’s getting heated because we all care,” said Lubin.

“But I think the community is identifying and screaming about something that could be considered a problem or just a signal for a shift. So, I do think that we need a shift to a different kind of mode for the Ethereum ecosystem and the Ethereum Foundation.”

Lubin said that while the low-key approach of the Foundation was appropriate during the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s war on crypto in the past couple of years, times have changed with the new administration and expected pro-crypto regulators.

“But with a massive go signal, I do think that there’s going to be so much aggressive pursuit of whatever — just trying things out, taking risks, moving really fast — and I do think we need a high-energy everything in our ecosystem, including the Ethereum Foundation,” he said.

Buterin calls on Consensys to step up

Consensys was formed as a for-profit company to build Ethereum infrastructure and apps in 2014 after Buterin decided against making Ethereum commercial. He instead set up the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation to guide its future direction and fund research.

2077 Collective researcher Emmanuel Awosika said there has long been tension between Consensys as a for-profit company and the idealistic foundation and researchers.

“Ethereum people have always talked about ‘capture,’ and any kind of company trying to steer the protocol some way was always frowned upon,” he said.

But on Jan. 21, Buterin suggested that maybe Consensys should step up:

“Perhaps the org that some people want to reform and bring back to new greater heights is actually not EF, but @Consensys (or some third thing in the same category).”

Related: Trump family may build ‘giant businesses’ on Ethereum — Lubin

Lubin said he’s ready and willing to help.

“I’m happy to hear that. So, for a bunch of years, we got a lot of heat for being a prominent actor in the Ethereum ecosystem,” he said.

“We’re excited to move into a phase where we don’t have to hang back, where we can compete vigorously with everybody else.”

He added that it was important for Ethereum “to have interfaces to companies, to nation states,” and suggested the foundation could outsource some of that to the business-focused Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

Community reservations about EF’s direction

There’s a concerted push in the community to replace the current Ethereum Foundation director Miyaguchi with researcher Ryan, who led the blockchain’s switch to proof-of-stake.

A former high school teacher who later joined Kraken, Miyaguchi has largely flown under the radar since being appointed in February 2018. She describes herself in her X bio as the “eclectic dreamer” of the foundation and states, “The world needs more Subtraction.”

She came under heavy fire this week for a 2023 Wired Japan interview, whose English-language version quotes her as saying she wants people “to be able to say ‘no’ to the culture of competing and winning.”

However, Cointelegraph has confirmed via an independent translation that the original Japanese article does not contain that quote.

That said, in the original Japanese article, she does state the foundation doesn’t prioritize projects focused on making money:

“First of all, we want to support as much as possible people who are working hard to change the way society works, even if they don’t make money. They can make money if they want to, but there’s no need for EF to support such people, and supporting them would weaken the message.”

Her low-key approach may well have helped Ethereum survive the SEC’s investigation into whether ETH is a security after Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake. A strong leadership direction from a centralized foundation controlled by Buterin — the largest known individual holder of ETH — probably would not have helped ETH’s case under the Howey test. 

Times change with the election of a pro-crypto administration

Lubin has publicly supported Ryan and Jerome de Tychey, president of Ethereum France, to “partner to lead the EF forward on dual technical and business development tracks.”

Ryan said he has been in discussions with Buterin about “the EF potentially entering a new era, not a full departure from prior strategy and philosophy, but an evolution to meet the world as it is today and as it has greatly changed over the past decade.”

“Danny is spectacular. I hope he wants to step in and take the role,” said Lubin. 

“I don’t think Danny wants to run a conference. I don’t think Danny wants to deal with requests to replace a ticket for somebody who lost their conference ticket. Danny’s so valuable on the technical side.”

A voting mechanism for ETH holders to signal support for Ryan has so far amassed roughly 32,300 ETH in favor (about $106 million) and just 7 ETH against, representing a 99.98% vote in favor. The poll is far from scientific, however, given the site is hosted at votedannyryan.com.

Vibe shift to the Bronze Age

One of Buterin’s recent posts suggests that “large changes” to the leadership structure have been in train for almost a year to improve technical expertise and communications with ecosystem actors, and Miyaguchi said she was “excited to finally be able to share more news about this soon.” 

But Buterin also added that the foundation wouldn’t be lobbying regulators and politicians or “execute some kind of ideological / vibez pivot from feminized wef soyboy mentality to bronze age mindset.”

Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, who went on to found Cardano, mocked Buterin’s post, saying: “What I got from this post is that EF will continue to be a nexus of feminized wef soybois 🙂 So I guess we are going full bronze age?”

Lubin may not hanker for the bronze age, but he certainly seems fired up to take action. Echoing US President Donald Trump’s famous words after the first assassination attempt on his life, Lubin posted:

“Ethereum must Fight Fight Fight! for the future that we all need to create.”

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