ConsenSys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin says Ethereum Foundation budget adjustment is a necessary evolution, not a crisis
Joe Lubin stated that the controversy surrounding the recent budget cuts, employee departures, and leadership adjustments at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is not indicative of a crisis within the organization, but rather a normal evolution in its development process.
He emphasized that the EF should focus on maintaining the core technology of the network and its "trustworthy neutrality" values, while responsibilities such as ecosystem expansion, institutional collaboration, and commercial promotion should be handled by other organizations to avoid conflicts between protocol development and commercial interests.
In terms of market mechanisms, the demand for decentralized governance from institutions and developers is driving funding from a single foundation-led model to a multi-organization collaborative model; under event-driven circumstances, capital is flowing from EF's internal operations to commercial entities within the ecosystem, benefiting the EF, which focuses on protocol neutrality, and independent commercial organizations, while putting pressure on market expectations that the foundation should also take on expansion responsibilities.
Source: Public Information
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Joe Lubin has long promoted the commercialization of the Ethereum ecosystem as the founder of ConsenSys, and he has repeatedly emphasized the separation between the protocol layer and the application layer amid controversies. The EF has undergone multiple governance adjustments to maintain its neutral position, aligning with the views of core developers like Vitalik Buterin.
In terms of capital pathways, Ethereum resources are concentrating towards a multi-organization division of labor model, with the EF focusing on the core protocol while commercial entities are responsible for expansion. The motivation is to reduce conflicts of interest and enhance overall ecosystem efficiency in response to capital competition following the diversion of narratives such as AI.
Similar to the long-standing practice of separating Bitcoin development and commercialization, as well as the centralization controversies faced by other public chains, Ethereum is currently in a mature transition phase from a single institution-led model to a distributed multi-organization collaboration.
Essentially, this reflects regulatory changes and a restructuring of the industry chain. The EF's budget adjustments promote further separation between protocol governance and commercial operations, mechanically dispersing capital from a centralized foundation to decentralized ecosystem entities, avoiding the concentration of power in a single entity and strengthening the network's long-term neutrality.
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While budget cuts may seem like a crisis, the focus on neutrality is actually a structural guarantee for the long-term survival of the protocol. Selling a single entity's all-inclusive conflict leads to inefficiency, while selling multi-organization division enhances efficiency; the top priority is to secure ecosystem pricing power locked in by trustworthy neutrality. The market lacks narratives, but it needs institutions focused on core issues; the winners will reshape the structure of blockchain governance through separation.