The criticism had been building for months. As competing blockchains moved aggressively to try to attract developers and users, some members of Ethereum’s community questioned whether the foundation had become too inward-looking and too slow to adapt. Calls for greater transparency, clearer priorities and stronger execution grew louder, placing unprecedented scrutiny on an organization that has traditionally preferred to work in silence behind the scenes.
That pressure culminated in sweeping internal changes. Over the past 7 months, nine senior members departed the Ethereum Foundation, including co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, whose resignations marked the end of an experiment in dual leadership that had itself been introduced as part of an earlier restructuring effort. The foundation also reduced its workforce by 20% through layoffs, underscoring a broader effort to redefine its mission and focus resources more deliberately.
The reorganization wasn’t simply about changing leadership. In March, the foundation published its first formal mandate, effectively a manifesto for how it intends to operate going forward. At its core is a framework known as CROPS: Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy and Security, which the foundation described as the non-negotiable principles that should guide every technical and organizational decision. The document also makes another notable commitment: that the foundation’s long-term success should be measured by its ability to reduce its own influence over Ethereum, reflecting a belief that the ecosystem should increasingly stand on its own rather than depend on a single institution to guide it.
