Altcoins News

Story: Ethereum Foundation Loses 8 Members as $1 Billion Rival Org Proposal Shakes Governance

By Dan Saada

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Cole, Feist, and the Loudest Critics. Cole went on a podcast and basically said the Foundation was out of touch.

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Buterin Pushes Back. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, weighed in with a detailed post.

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Developer Retention and Rival Chains. Rival blockchains have been circling Ethereum's developer base for years.

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The Ethereum Foundation is in trouble. Eight key members have walked out since January 2026, and the fallout has turned into something far bigger than a staffing problem — it's a…

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The cracks really started showing in March 2026, when the Foundation published what it calls its "Mandate.

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Zak Cole, an Ethereum contributor, didn't hold back.

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Cole went on a podcast and basically said the Foundation was out of touch. His argument: Ethereum is mature now, the financial stakes are enormous, and the Foundation's…

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Former researcher Dankrad Feist went further. He proposed building a separate organization — funded with $1 billion in ETH — specifically designed to fill the execution gap he…

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And it's not just external noise. Internal leadership at the Foundation is also pushing on technical priorities.

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Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, weighed in with a detailed post. He pushed back on the framing that the Foundation is failing.

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See also: Vitalik Buterin Says Open Source Could Give Europe 4,500 Fewer Big Tech Dependencies

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That's a coherent argument. But it doesn't fully address what the critics are actually saying, which is less about values and more about speed and competitive positioning.

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Chris Buolos of Dromos Labs offered a more measured take. He acknowledged the criticism but defended the Foundation's neutrality, saying it still plays a real role in aligning…

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The governance issue isn't directly crashing ETH's price. But it's not irrelevant to markets either.

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Rival blockchains have been circling Ethereum's developer base for years. That competition is real and it's not slowing down.

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