Prominent figures in the community who have invested in Ethereum for years have pushed back against growing alarm over a series of withdrawals from the Ethereum Foundation (EF), insisting that the organization’s commitment to the network remains as strong as ever.
Ryan Berkmans, who has worked full-time in the Ethereum space for eight years, offered one of the more detailed community-level defenses of EF’s current direction since defections started increasing this year.
Withdrawal due to difference of opinion
Berkmans said people are misunderstanding the situation.
“I’m not leaving EF because those who leave feel differently about Ethereum or our trajectory compared to those who stay at EF or those in communities like mine,” he wrote.
In his view, what actually drove them was not a loss of faith in Ethereum itself, but rather a combination of internal disagreements over sub-strategies and a deliberate generational shift.
“Some people did not agree. A few people were asked to leave for a reason. A few others left quickly because of rational online sentiment. Some more leave because the wheels are spinning,” he explained.
In addition, Berckmans added that new, younger contributors are ready to take on leadership roles across teams and departments. He also addressed the community’s persistent complaints that EF and Vitalik Buterin don’t care about the price of ETH, claiming that this is a misunderstanding.
They care deeply, he says, but over a much longer period of time than most community members keep track of.
“They want to know, ‘How will Ethereum maintain its dominant position after quantum computers?’” and “How will Ethereum become a global economic hub with trillions of assets and thousands of L2s across 100 countries?”
His conclusion was that these are questions that can only be asked if you believe the results are achievable, and that EF’s programs that respond to them are “bullish”.
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Four notable contributors left after just four weeks
The wave of departures also includes Karl Beek, Julian Ma, Barnabe Monot, Tim Beiko, Trent van Epps, Josh Stark and former co-executive director Tomasz Stanczak.
Stanczak’s resignation attracted a lot of attention, especially considering he left after just 11 months in office. Moreover, the exits were concentrated, with four of the most prominent exits landing within about four weeks of each other in April and May.
Meanwhile, an in-depth analysis by cryptocurrency researcher Nick Sawiny noted unconfirmed claims circulating online that employees have been formally asked to comply with the foundation’s new mandate. However, EF has not publicly acknowledged these claims, and none of the outgoing contributors cited their duties as a reason for their departure.
People are also keeping an eye on Gramsterdam’s upcoming upgrade to Ethereum, which is still being tested. The protocol update includes changes related to scaling and validation infrastructure, but some anticipated features such as FOCIL and native account abstraction have already been deferred to later upgrade cycles.
Nevertheless, many Ethereum backers believe that the entire ecosystem can now smoothly undergo a leadership change without posing risk to the entire network. One of them, author William Mougayar, explained that the foundation’s reduced role is not a sign of institutional decline, but rather a deliberate attempt to remove Ethereum’s remaining central points of control.
