The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is sharpening its concentrate on enhancing the Layer 1 community and enhancing the consumer expertise by way of a sequence of upcoming protocol upgrades.
On April 21, Tomasz Stańczak, the incoming co-director at EF, confirmed that the group is shifting its analysis priorities. The brand new focus will middle on Layer 1 efficiency, continued help for Layer 2 enlargement, and tackling usability challenges which have continued within the Ethereum ecosystem.
He acknowledged:
“Throughout the EF we’ll shift a lot of our analysis effort towards close to‑time period targets, aiming to handle consumer expertise and scaling challenges within the subsequent two protocol upgrades.”
This implies the improve may unfold throughout a number of protocol updates, together with Pectra, Fusaka, and Glamsterdam.
Stańczak famous that internal discussions round Ethereum’s roadmap have been intensive and met with sturdy help from the developer neighborhood.
Nevertheless, he careworn that turning these ideas into dwell upgrades requires constant effort from researchers and core builders.
In the meantime, Stańczak additionally talked about that a few of Ethereum’s long-term initiatives may arrive sooner than initially projected. He attributed this acceleration to the analysis neighborhood’s rising contributions.
He added:
“We’re exploring methods to carry ahead tasks that presently look three to 5 years away. Posts from our prime researchers assist a few of them to ship inside one or two years by way of initiatives comparable to subsequent‑technology execution and consensus layers.”
Vitalik Buterin transitions to analysis function
As a part of current leadership changes within the Foundation, Stańczak introduced that Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, will now focus solely on analysis and exploratory work.
In line with Stańczak:
“We aimed, amongst different issues, to free extra of Vitalik’s time for analysis and exploration, somewhat than day‑to‑day coordination or disaster response. Every time Vitalik shares insights or communicates a course, he accelerates main lengthy‑time period breakthroughs.”
Stańczak highlighted that Buterin’s insights have regularly catalyzed progress throughout important areas, together with zkVM growth, RISC-V research, and privacy-enhancing technologies. These contributions, he stated, have helped realign Ethereum’s core mission whereas opening new technical frontiers.
Nevertheless, Stańczak clarified that Buterin’s proposals aren’t ultimate selections. As a substitute, they’re designed to spark dialog and encourage important neighborhood enter.
He additionally careworn the significance of peer assessment and the liberty to problem concepts, saying:
“Group assessment could refine [Buterin’s proposal] considerably and even reject them. We wish the identical freedom for our different researchers, who present braveness by posing tough questions and suggesting various approaches.”