After the changing of the guard, where will the Ethereum Foundation go?

By: blockbeats|2025/03/04 03:30:04
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原文标题:《权力更迭之后,以太坊基金会将走向何方?》
原文作者:深潮 TechFlow

2025 年 3 月,以太坊基金会(Ethereum Foundation,下文简称 EF)宣布一项领导层的重大变动:执行董事 Aya Miyaguchi 卸下日常管理职责,转而担任基金会主席。而 Hsiao-Wei Wang 和 Tomasz Stańczak 则被任命为新的共同执行董事,同时前 EF 研究员 Danny Ryan 的回归也迎来社区一阵欢呼。

结合始终被市场紧密关注的 ETH 币价和近来一直站在市场讨论风口浪尖的基金会,这次的人事调整,更像是一场关于以太坊未来走向的博弈。从社区的激烈争论到领导层的人事变动,这场权力交替的故事背后也有着市场合力的推动与期待。

执行董事到主席,其实是明升暗降?

在担任 7 年的执行董事后,饱受争议的 Aya Miyaguchi 升任 EF 基金会主席。这看似是升级,但从实权分配的角度看,本次变动用「明升暗降」来形容或许更合适,干实事的执行董事职位被分配给两位更加贴近技术社区连接 Wang 和 Stanczak。Aya 新担任的基金会主席的定位更像是基金会的形象代表(或者说吉祥物),这样也许更符合 Aya 本身的行事模式。

2018 年,当 Aya Miyaguchi 接过 EF 执行董事的接力棒时,便将目光投向了建设以太坊更加「非盈利化、可持续性」的未来。Aya 带着更理想化的愿景,将以太坊定义为「无限花园」的理念,鼓励开发者在一个开放、无许可的生态中自由创新。同时 Aya 推动的 Devcon 大会,每年都成为全球以太坊社区的盛会。

然而过于理想化的愿景与行事风格能撑起基金会的未来,但可能并不符合社区的期待。直至去年,社区对她的领导风格愈发不满,有人认为她在资源分配上过于保守,面对接连创新的 Solana,以太坊的反应显然有些迟缓。彼时作为执行董事的 Aya 将更多精力放在文化推广而非技术突破与市场运营上,加之 EF 持续出售 ETH 的消息贯穿着表现不佳的价格,这让许多开发者与投资者感到 EF 逐渐有些「德不配位」。社区的争论愈演愈烈,甚至出现了针对她个人的极端言论与生命威胁,Vitalik 也不得不出面呼吁社区冷静。

如今,转任主席的 Aya 将聚焦于战略指导和外部合作,这也宣告着她的实权执行岁月告一段落。

Hsiao-Wei Wang:早期核心研究员,连接社区与技术

新任执行董事之一 Hsiao-Wei Wang,中文本名王筱薇。

与 Aya 不同,Hsiao-Wei Wang 的故事始于代码与社区的交汇处。2017 年,她以核心研究员身份加入 EF,凭借台湾交通大学网络工程硕士学位的技术底蕴,迅速成为以太坊核心开发的中坚力量。她的专长集中在分片和信标链,在 2022 年的 The Merge 中扮演了关键角色。

2018 年,她在台北组织并参与了 以太坊分片研讨会 Ethereum Sharding Workshop in Taipei,吸引全球开发者。这场活动让亚太以太坊社区崭露头角,也为她建立了技术与沟通并重的声誉。她常年在亚洲各地奔走,举办开发者聚会,将复杂的技术原理拆解并连接到社区的认知中。她回忆道:「那是我们第一次真正把全球研发团队带到本地,气氛太棒了。」

Celer Network 创始人董博士给予了 Hsiao-Wei Wang 高度评价,表示 2018 年-2019 年期间,Wang 曾和如今 Uniswap Foundation 负责人 Ken 一起负责以太坊基金会的 Grant,很积极且有成效,Wang 比较清楚亚洲 builder 的能力,曾经替不少亚洲/华人 builder 争取话语权,很务实。

如今,作为执行董事,Wang 肩负起研发洞察与社区建设的双重重任,她的到来被视为以太坊重拾技术与草根精神的信号。

After the changing of the guard, where will the Ethereum Foundation go?

Tomasz Stanczak:以太坊基础设施建筑师

如果说 Wang 是技术与社区的桥梁,那么 Tomasz Stanczak 则更像以太坊基础设施的建筑师。他是 Nethermind 的创始人,这个执行客户端如今已是以太坊网络的不可或缺的一部分。

2017 年,Nethermind 还只是波兰的一个小项目,Stanczak 和几位朋友在华沙的一间小公寓里敲代码,试图打造一个高效的以太坊客户端。

几年后,他将 Nethermind 发展成以太坊网络中坚技术力量,支持网络的稳定运行。他的视野不仅限于客户端开发,还深入到 MEV 和 PBS(提议者-建造者分离)等领域。作为 Flashbots 的早期成员,他为以太坊的去中心化和安全性贡献了重要思路,例如优化区块提议机制以减少矿工的中心化风险。

2024 年的 Devcon SEA 上,Stanczak 站在舞台中央,分享他对以太坊与 AI 交叉应用的畅想。如今,他成为 EF 的共同执行董事,负责生态增长和核心价值观的守护。他的工程背景和战略眼光,让社区对于以太坊的技术未来,有了新期待。

Danny Ryan 宣布重返生态,众望所归

宣布人事变动后,社区的反应如潮水般涌来。在推特上,有人赞赏 Wang 和 Stanczak 的技术背景,认为这是以太坊回归技术本位的信号;也有人在 Reddit 上质疑,仅仅换人能否解决深层问题。V 神也公开支持这一过渡,称其为「提前计划的一部分」。

同时,在以太坊社区知名度极高的前 EF 研究员 Danny Ryan 也对此次人事变动表示积极肯定,也宣布以以太坊生态机构级营销与产品部门 Etherealize 联创的身份重回以太坊生态。社区也表示 Danny Ryan 的回归也许会引导以太坊走向更加成熟的发展道路。

有意思的是在今年 1 月的一次 Ether 的非正式社区投票中,Danny Ryan 被选为担任 EF 唯一领导人的最佳人选。

依然免不了「过于中心化」?

EF 这场领导层更替并非凭空而来,而是社区不满、市场竞争和技术瓶颈交织下的必然结果。

2024 年,以太坊面临内忧外患:Solana 用低成本高效率打造的「Meme 天堂」吸引巨量市场资金与注意力,而以太坊的高 Gas 费和拥堵问题迟迟未解,ETH 币价在层层对比之下更是表现平平。而更深层的矛盾在于治理模式。EF 的决策权长期集中于少数人,这种结构在当前市场高速迭代的需求中显得笨拙。

社区的讨论异常激烈,将矛头指向 EF,认为其在 Aya 领导下过于被动,未能迅速应对竞争压力。甚至有人直接攻击 Aya,称她过于理想化的想法不匹配当时的市场需求,「何不食肉糜」、「毁了以太坊的黄金时代」等言论层出不穷。

只是本次职位变更,似乎没有真正解决 EF 高层「中心化」的问题。毕竟 Vitalik 称早在一年之前,Aya 就主动提出过转任主席的想法,而之前 Vitalik 在与社区争辩时也明确提到 EF 高层变动的决定权目前仍属于自己。

所以,这次人事变更看似是对社区问题的回应,但或许本质上仍难免是一种中心化决策的执行。

市场只看真结果,以太坊需要找平衡

显然,对于 Wang 和 Stanczak 的就任,社区既期待新领导带来实质性改变,又担忧这只是中心化之下的表面功夫,期待与疑虑交织,构成了变革初期的复杂氛围。或许社区对于新官上任只是一时新鲜,透明的资金分配、具体的改革措施才是社区真正渴望看到的答案。未来几个月,新领导层的每一步决策都将被放大检视。

面对需要变革的以太坊,不同的视角也必然导致不同的想法。基金会的高层们想要建设更理想化的生态与未来,但梦想始终需要面包来支撑、加密市场也不再是以太坊一家之言的那个市场,如果 EF 只是一味地卖币、高谈论阔地 build,而忽略社区的真实感受,无疑只能加深市场对以太坊所谓「去中心化」的质疑。

站在当下的节点上,我们无法预知结局。但有一点是确定的:表面功夫与宏大叙事已经无法再托举以太坊真正的未来,与其让社区与 Holder 们在被迫建设与无奈谩骂之间来回摇摆,不如让诸如 EF 等以太坊高层在去中心化的发展与中心化的决策之间寻求真正的平衡。

原文链接

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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating

On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.



On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.


Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.


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Side Effects of ETFs


Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.



Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.


According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.


This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.


Chart showing the trend of net outflows for Grayscale among the 11 institutions


Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.



In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.


According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.



However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.


The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.


Robinhood Takes a Stand, Traditional Brokerages Join the Fray


On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.



With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.


In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.



Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.



Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.



User Data Breach: Is Coinbase Still Secure?


In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.


Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.


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Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.


Visualization: ChatGPT, Source: Farside


In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.


Visualization: ChatGPT


Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.


CEXs are All in Self-Rescue Mode


Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.



Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.


Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.



Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.


With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.


However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.


In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.


The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.


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