Dialogue with the Ethereum Foundation: After the Pectra upgrade, a detailed explanation of the three core strategies for the future.

Author | Bankless

Compilation | Plain Language Blockchain

On May 7, Ethereum completed the Pectra network upgrade, marking a new chapter in ecological development. Taking this opportunity, Tamas Stanczak, the new co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, and Shay Wong discussed their ideas and determination to drive change in an interview with Bankless.

In the past, the community has criticized the Ethereum Foundation for its execution speed, communication methods, and ongoing coin sales. In this interview, the two responded one by one:

• Provided a direct explanation for community questions, including the necessity of “selling coins” operations.
• Elaborate on the three strategic focuses of “scaling L1, scaling Blobs, and improving user experience.”
• Clarify the technological development path from Pectra to Fusaka (expected in autumn), and then to the upgrade in Amsterdam next year.
• The plan is to increase the hard fork to a 6-month cycle and propose long-term expansion goals, such as expanding 100 times within four years.

The following is an excerpt from this interview, compiled by the Plain Language Blockchain:

Q1: Please introduce your background and how you came to hold this position at the Ethereum Foundation?

Shay Wong: My background is in computer science. I joined the Foundation in 2017. At the time, I was a core protocol researcher working on the first version of the Sharding Proof of Concept (PoC). Since then, I’ve been intimately involved with the Ethereum protocol, when it was just called a consensus protocol. With the advent of Can chain, I focused more on the consensus layer in the Ethereum protocol and contributed to the transition to proof-of-stake (i.e., The Merge). My role is a bit of a co-lead of the Foundation’s consensus development team, responsible for the specification of the consensus layer, and acting as a coordinator between the research side and the client (CL).

Before joining the leadership team, I believed that the role of a foundation researcher was very special, not just focused on research functionality. We also care about how these features will impact users. In December last year, I joined the leadership team. This experience helped me to work with Tomasz as a co-CEO.

Tomasz Stanczak: I first came across Ethereum at a small gathering in London around the end of 2015 or early 2016. At that time, I was working in the traditional finance industry. In August 2017, I founded Nethermind, a core development infrastructure company. I started by reading the yellow paper and felt that the best way to learn was to implement it, so I began coding in C# and gradually delved into the infrastructure.

I envision that Ethereum will eventually require professional tools, much like a “data marketplace.” I joined Flashbots in 2020, participating in MEV solutions, which greatly accelerated my journey. At that time, I was also developing the Oiler project, attempting to build a block space Gas trading solution. Nethermind grew to about 300 people and introduced around 600 people to the ecosystem through internship programs. A few months ago, I provided advice to Aya regarding leadership direction. In February of this year, I reached out again and ultimately decided to join. I believe Ethereum needs help and leaders.

Q2: What does this co-executive director position specifically mean, and what is your vision?

Shay Wong: The executive director of the Ethereum Foundation needs to think long-term, as we are a non-profit organization. Our mission is to be the stewards of the ecosystem, stepping up when the ecosystem needs us the most, focusing on key areas, and empowering other participants. We need to establish principles for ourselves that should not waver frequently, and we must also strengthen our capacity and resilience in order to flexibly focus on the dynamic issues we deal with every day.

Tomasz Stanczak: I bring experience and energy in building organizations and working within ecosystems. For the past four years, I have been nomadic and have met many builders. My aim is to help improve the internal structure of the foundation and accelerate processes. There are about 40 leaders in the foundation who lead small teams, and they need to be given space to realize that they are the true leaders of the EF.

There are some small things within the foundation that can make a big difference, and there are many talented individuals who can engage in extensive communication. This was almost the first thing I started to address before I officially began working. With my experience in building clients, I can examine challenges from a technical perspective. Over the past few weeks, I have opened up my schedule to listen to feedback. We hope that the foundation can communicate more actively and not shy away from difficult issues, even if it sometimes feels uncomfortable.

Q3: Aya Miyaguchi’s era is defined as “subtractive gain.” How do you define the new chapter under your leadership? What achievements do you hope to leave behind?

Tomasz Stanczak: I see my role as an executor rather than a vision setter, operating within the vision that Shay and I have co-established, dedicated to bringing dynamic, short-term changes in the next year or two. It’s like you have planted a garden, and now you need to trim and tidy everything that is growing there. I hope Ethereum is seen as the global neutral layer for the global economy and transactions.

This is about winning through influence, bringing the values we truly care about: when we talk about privacy, security, open access, and the censorship resistance of protocols, these are important to us. If a protocol lacks influence and is not integrated into all future economic, governance, and AI processes, we cannot achieve these. The success of L1 will empower L2, jointly spreading the values of Ethereum. In the future, everything should operate on Ethereum as it does on the internet.

Shay Wong: I tell myself to “lead with clarity, act with purpose, and build without attachment.” This is about the world we want to live in, not just personal achievements. Ethereum should be more than just a product; it relates to culture and the kind of world we want to live in. I hope Ethereum becomes the most decentralized, permissionless, and open blockchain in the world. For this, we need to develop in certain areas, but growth and principles should complement each other. We need to balance principles with resilient growth.

Q4: The community generally believes that the Ethereum Foundation is doing well in research, values, and client diversity, but there are shortcomings in execution speed, communication (such as roadmaps), and connecting with actual users (such as DeFi users). How do you view this feedback?

Tomasz Stanczak: Everything people complain about is very real. I have had about 200 conversations in the past two months and heard similar feedback. We need to clarify our North Star goals and increase our speed. We need to optimize the developer onboarding process, communicate with DeFi builders, clarify the roadmap (such as the L1/L2 relationship and the future of staking), and improve communication to avoid the “ivory tower” image.

We cannot get caught up in endless research and need to adapt to market changes. Many people are willing to help, and some will say, “I have been dormant for the past three or four years, but I am ready to come back and help now.” Even people within the Ethereum Foundation are extremely impatient for change, and they want to be involved as well.

Q5: Can these issues - slow speed, lack of communication, and being out of touch with reality - be resolved?

Tomasz Stanczak: Absolutely. Many issues can be resolved through small communication adjustments and process optimizations. The key is to activate the community and internal decision-makers, empowering them to accelerate action and not wait.

We need to involve application developers earlier in the planning stage. We should actively seek out those who are most likely to oppose a certain feature and listen to their opinions at the outset, thinking about how to build something so important that can make everything better, to the point that even the opponents can be persuaded by the overwhelming opinions of others. A product-centric mindset is key to solving these issues.

Q6: You mentioned “product-centric Ethereum.” Does this mean a greater focus on practical applications and user needs?

Tomasz Stanczak: A product-centric mindset is the foundation for achieving our three goals (scaling L1, scaling Blobs, and improving UX). It means we must constantly think: Why are we making this change? Who is it for? And involve users in co-design. At the same time, we must adhere to our core values and quality standards.

For example, if you consider EOF or extended L1, you need to ask: what is the impact on decentralization? Which users will be affected? What are their opinions? We need to restructure the ACD meeting to include product discussions. Developer experience (DevX) is also part of user experience. We need to provide builders with a clear roadmap and support. For instance, what will happen after the hackathon? What will happen the next day on Monday? Will they start building on Ethereum? Do they feel that Ethereum is a product that provides them with answers, clearly explains how to build, which technology to choose, who can help, and how to get funding?

Q7: What specific ideas do you have regarding the metrics for measuring success?

Tomasz Stanczak: Not all indicators have been finalized. We need to implement the goals within the team and create an internal dashboard. For L1 scaling, we have preliminary targets: three times this year, and a total of ten times next year. Dankrad proposed an exponential roadmap of 100 times within four years.

This process includes: first reviewing all clients, then making changes to the execution layer and consensus layer via EIP, and finally accelerating primarily through ZK technology over the next three to four years. This 100-fold goal will become the anchor point for our organization’s research and development. We will ask each research team: how does your work serve this 100-fold goal? Is it serving the first year, second year, third year, or fourth year?

Q8: The community sometimes has unrealistic expectations of the Ethereum Foundation. What are some things that the Ethereum Foundation actually does not do or are beyond its scope?

Shay Wong: A controversial point is the sale of ETH. The community expects us to hold, but for operation and funding, we must sell. Secondly, for the core tasks that only EF can do, we will be more hands-on and allocate internal resources. However, for other levels of tasks, such as certain business expansions, we prefer to support through funding. EF’s role is more of a coordinator, helping people find the right resources in the ecosystem.

Tomasz Stanczak: The Ethereum Foundation should intervene when there are certain gaps in the ecosystem, but generally, it’s about helping the corresponding organizations emerge and grow. We do not play the role of coordinators or owners. For example, in communication with Wall Street or the government, the Foundation certainly does not want to coordinate that work, but we want to be able to answer questions and provide expertise, rather than possibly avoiding interaction like in the past. We are not the owners of the Ethereum protocol, nor do we act as owners.

In terms of engineering, we have the Geth team, which is important for research, but we do not build consensus clients. We avoid directly building applications or infrastructure because the ecosystem can do better. In terms of business development, we want to take a more active role as a “helper”: connecting applications, clients, talent, and research results. The foundation often serves as the first point of contact for many participants. Rather than just providing funding every time, we prefer to actively help founders solve the specific problems they face in the early stages. A significant part of Ethereum is about creating networks, and building networks at the social layer is something the foundation can do very well. In marketing, we focus on communication and clarity rather than advertising.

Q9: What are the specific roadmap and timeline for the upcoming hard fork plans?

Tomasz Stanczak: We plan to accelerate the pace of hard forks to approximately every six months. The next one is Pectra, which will include significant improvements in account abstraction and user experience brought by EIP-3074 (SFS 102), in addition to the Max Effective Balance changes related to staking. We are currently testing rigorously to ensure safety.

After the deployment of Pectra, we will immediately launch the development network for the next hard fork, Fusaka, with the goal of releasing it in September or October this year, with the key focus on ensuring there are no delays. There will also be a large gathering of core developers and researchers at that time to accelerate the goals.

The next hard fork is Amsterdam, scheduled to complete the upgrade by the end of next year, which will include acceleration of L1 scaling. Some L1 scaling work has already begun, with some not requiring a hard fork and others requiring EIPs. At the same time, the ecosystem development department, led by Jane Smith, is reorganizing processes to better serve builders’ needs in areas such as tokenization and RWA. The ACD meetings are also being adjusted to accommodate a faster delivery pace and to involve application developers earlier.