Translated by: Plain Language Blockchain
On May 7, Ethereum completed the Pectra network upgrade, opening a new chapter in the development of the ecosystem. Taking this opportunity, Tamas Stanczak and Shay Wong, the new co-executive directors of the Ethereum Foundation, accepted an interview with Bankless to explain their ideas and determination to promote change.
In the past, the community has criticized the Ethereum Foundation for its execution speed, communication methods, and continuous coin sales. In this interview, the two responded one by one:
Give a direct explanation to community questions, including the necessity of the "coin sales" operation.
Detailed explanation of the three strategic focuses of "expanding L1, expanding Blobs, and improving user experience".
Clearly define the technical development path from Pectra to Fusaka (expected in autumn), and then to the Amsterdam upgrade next year.
Plan to increase the hard fork cycle to 6 months, and propose long-term expansion goals, such as 100 times in four years.
The following is a partial excerpt of the interview, compiled by the Plain Language Blockchain:
Q1: Please introduce your background and how did you come to the Ethereum Foundation to hold this position?
Shay Wong: My background is in computer science. I joined the Foundation in 2017. At that time, I was a core protocol researcher working on the first version of the sharding proof-of-concept (PoC). Since then, I have been closely involved in the work of the Ethereum protocol, when it was just called the consensus protocol. With the emergence 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., merger). My role is a bit like a co-lead of the consensus R&D team at the Foundation, mainly responsible for the specifications of the consensus layer, and as a coordinator between the research side and the client (CL).
Before joining the leadership team, I thought the role of a Foundation researcher was very special, not just researching features. We also care about how these features will affect users. Last December, I joined the leadership team. This experience helped me to be able to serve as co-executive director with Tomasz.
Tomasz Stanczak: I came into contact with Ethereum at a small meetup in London around the end of 2015 or the beginning of 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 started writing code in C# and gradually went deeper into the infrastructure.
I envisioned that Ethereum would need professional tools sooner or later, like a "data market". Joining Flashbots in 2020 to participate in the MEV solution greatly accelerated my journey. At the time, I was also developing the Oiler project, trying to build a block space Gas transaction solution. Nethermind has grown to about 300 people and has introduced about 600 people to the ecosystem through internship programs. A few months ago, I provided advice on leadership direction with Aya. In February of this year, I contacted again and finally decided to join. I think 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 longer-term because we are a non-profit organization. Our mission is to be stewards of the ecosystem, stepping up when the ecosystem needs us most, focusing on key areas, and empowering other players. We need to establish principles for ourselves that should not be shaken too often, and also build strength and resilience to be able to flexibly focus on the dynamic issues we deal with every day.
Tomasz Stanczak: I bring experience and energy from building organizations and working in ecosystems. I have been nomadic for the past four years and have met many builders. I aim 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 need to give them space to realize that they are the real leaders of EF.
There are small things within the Foundation that can bring big help and there are many talented people who can communicate a lot. This was almost the first thing I tackled before I officially started. With my experience building clients, I can look at the challenges from a technical perspective. I have been opening up my schedule for the past few weeks to listen to feedback. We want the Foundation to communicate more proactively and not shy away from difficult questions, even if that sometimes makes people uncomfortable.
Q3: Aya Miyaguchi's era was defined as "gain by subtraction." How do you define the new chapter under your leadership? What kind of achievements do you hope to leave behind?
Tomasz Stanczak: I see my role as an implementer rather than a vision setter, operating within the vision that Shay and I have set together, and working to bring dynamic, short-term changes in the next year or two. Just like you planted a garden, now you need to prune and organize everything that grows there. I want Ethereum to be seen as the global neutral layer for the global economy and transactions.
It's about winning through influence, bringing the values we really care about: When we talk about privacy, security, open source access, and the censorship resistance of the protocol, these are important to us. We can’t achieve this without the protocol being influential and integrated into all future economic, governance, and AI processes. The success of L1 will empower L2, and together they will spread the values of Ethereum. In the future, everything should run on Ethereum just like the Internet.
Shay Wong: I tell myself to “lead with clarity, act with purpose, and build without obsession”. It’s about the world we want to live in, not just personal achievements. Ethereum should be more than a product, it’s about culture, about the world we want to live in. I want Ethereum to be the most decentralized, permissionless, and open blockchain in the world. To do this, we need to grow in some ways, but growth and principles should go hand in hand. We need to balance principles and resilient growth.
Q4:The community generally believes that the Ethereum Foundation has done a good job in research, values, and client diversity, but lacks in execution speed, communication (such as roadmaps), and connection 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 the North Star goal and increase speed. We need to optimize the developer introduction process, communicate with DeFi builders, clarify the roadmap (such as L1/L2 relationship, staking future), and improve communication to avoid the "ivory tower" image.
We can't get stuck in endless research and need to adapt to market changes. Many people are willing to help, and some people will say, "I have been dormant for the past three or four years, but I'm ready to come back to help." Even people within the Ethereum Foundation are extremely impatient with change and want to be part of it themselves.
Q5: Can these problems - slow speed, poor communication, and disconnection from reality - be solved?
Tomasz Stanczak: Very much. Many problems can be solved through small communication adjustments and process optimization. The key is to activate the community and internal decision-makers, empower them, and let them move faster, not wait.
We need to bring application developers into the planning stage earlier. And take the initiative to find those who are most likely to oppose a feature and listen to their opinions at the beginning, thinking about how to build something so important and make everything better that even opponents will be convinced by the overwhelming opinions of others. A product-centric mindset is at the core of solving these problems.
Q6: You mentioned "product-centric Ethereum". Does this mean focusing more on practical applications and user needs?
Tomasz Stanczak： A product-centric mindset is fundamental to achieving our three goals (expanding L1, expanding Blobs, and improving UX). It means that we have to constantly think: Why are we making this change? Who is this for? And involve users in co-design. At the same time, we must stick to core values and quality standards.
For example, if you consider EOF or expanding L1, you have to ask: What impact does this have 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 the user experience. We need to provide builders with a clear roadmap and support. For example, what happens after the hackathon? What happens on the next Monday? Will they start building on Ethereum? Do they feel that Ethereum is a product that provides them with answers, clear instructions on how to build, which technology to choose, who to help, and how to get funding?
Q7: What specific ideas do you have about metrics for measuring success?
Tomasz Stanczak： Not all metrics have been finalized yet. We need to implement goals to teams and create internal dashboards. In terms of L1 scaling, we have initial goals: 3x this year and 10x in total next year. Dankrad proposed an exponential roadmap of 100x in four years.
This process includes: first reviewing all clients, then making changes to the execution layer and consensus layer through EIP, and finally accelerating mainly through ZK technology in the next three to four years. This 100x goal will become the anchor for how we organize research and development. We are going to each research team and ask: How does your work serve this 100x goal? Is it in the first year, the second year, the third year or the fourth year?
Q8: The community sometimes has unrealistic expectations of the Ethereum Foundation. What are the things that the Ethereum Foundation does not actually do or is beyond its scope?
Shay Wong： One controversial thing is selling ETH. The community expects us to hold, but we have to sell it for operations and funding. Secondly, for the most core things that only EF can do, we will be more hands-on and allocate internal resources. But for other levels of things, such as certain business development, 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 the ecosystem is missing something, but usually to help the corresponding organization emerge and grow. We do not play the role of a coordinator or owner. For example, communication with Wall Street or the government, the foundation certainly does not want to coordinate these efforts, but we hope to be able to answer questions and provide expertise, rather than avoiding interaction as we may have done in the past. We are not the owner of the Ethereum protocol, nor do we act as an owner.
In terms of engineering, we have the Geth team, which is important for research, but we do not build consensus clients. We avoid building applications or infrastructure directly because the ecosystem can do better. In terms of business development, we hope to play a more active role as a "helper": connecting applications, customers, talents, research results, and the foundation is often the first point of contact for many participants. Instead of just providing funding every time, we hope to actively help founders solve specific problems they face in the early stages. A large part of Ethereum is creating a network, and creating a network with a social layer is something that the foundation can do very well. In terms of marketing, we focus on communication and clarity rather than advertising.
Q9: Regarding the specific roadmap and rhythm, what is the next hard fork plan?
Tomasz Stanczak: We plan to speed up the rhythm of hard forks to about once every six months. The next one is Pectra. In addition to the Max Effective Balance changes related to staking, there are also huge improvements in account abstraction and user experience brought about by similar EIP-3074 (SFS 102). Currently testing to ensure safety.
Once Pectra is deployed, we will immediately launch the development network for the next hard fork Fusaka, which is targeted for release in September or October of this year, key is to ensure no delays. There will also be a large gathering of core developers and researchers to accelerate the goal.
The next hard fork is Amsterdam, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year and will include acceleration of L1 expansion. Some L1 expansion work has already begun, some of which does not require a hard fork, and some of which requires EIPs. At the same time, the Ecosystem Development Department, led by Jane Smith, is restructuring its processes to better serve the needs of builders in terms of tokenization, RWA, etc. ACD meetings are also being adjusted to accommodate a faster delivery cadence and to involve application developers earlier.
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