Less than a month after the Pectra Upgrade, the Ethereum Foundation is waving a big red flag: the world’s second-biggest crypto giant is gearing up for major breakthroughs, but only if it cleans up its messy “shipping protocol” act.
The foundation isn’t sugarcoating it. On Monday, it announced a shake-up, bundling its Protocol Research & Development teams into one sleek “Protocol” division. The goal? To finally stop tripping over its own feet and deliver on the hard-to-explain demands of Ethereum’s growing ecosystem.
Why? Ethereum already powers most of the internet’s capital markets, on-chain communities, and protects over $200 billion in value. Binji Pande from Optimism put it nicely: Protocol now gets the clarity and execution Ethereum deserves, scaling what works, improving UX, and keeping Ethereum useful worldwide.
Three Teams, Three Goals, One Big Protocol Overhaul
Here’s the game plan: the new division breaks into three teams, scaling the main blockchain (Layer 1), scaling blobs (data storage), and making the user experience less “huh?” Each squad has its own captain: Tim Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs tackle Layer 1, Alex Stokes and Francesco D’Amato handle blob scaling, while Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf work on user experience.
But hey, not everyone gets to stay on the cool new Protocol team. Some folks are out, with the Foundation nudging ecosystem projects to scoop up the departing talent.
Backing all this up is Dankrad Feist, the blockchain wizard behind “Danksharding,” serving as a strategic advisor across all teams.
Drama, Delays, and a Hope for the ‘World Computer’
Sure, Feist isn’t without drama, last year he and Justin Drake stirred controversy after admitting they got tokens for advising EigenLayer, a restaking protocol. The Foundation admitted relying on “culture and individual judgment” wasn’t cutting it and promised formal policies to keep things tidy.
The bottom line: Ethereum’s restructuring aims to close the annoying gap between fancy research and actual working code. Past upgrades like Pectra hit snags, testnet failures delayed launches, sending developers into bug-fixing overdrive.
Now, with Protocol, the Foundation is showing the world it’s ready to deliver on its promise of being “the world computer.” Let’s hope this reboot finally sticks.
Abimbola Adu
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