The Ethereum Foundation cuts its budget by 40% and undergoes a radical restructuring: a new course towards efficiency
The Ethereum ecosystem is entering a new era. The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has officially announced a radical reorganization of its governance structure, and co-founder Vitalik Buterin has confirmed a significant reduction in the operational budget — approximately 40%. This is not just optimization, but a paradigm shift: the foundation is transitioning from actively spending reserves to a long-term capital management model.
Three Pillars of the New Strategy
Instead of the previous vague structure, the EF's activities will now be strictly focused on three key areas. The first is core protocol development (Protocol). The second is accelerating technology adoption and ecosystem growth (Acceleration). The third is ensuring the long-term sustainability of the network and community (Stewardship). This triad is designed to increase transparency and decision-making speed, which is critically important amid preparations for the next major network upgrade — the Strawmap program, which will affect virtually all components of the blockchain.
Buterin's Austerity Regime
Financial discipline is becoming a priority. Buterin revealed that while before 2026 the EF was spending about 15% of its remaining reserves annually, after 2030 this figure will be reduced to 5%. The foundation is transforming into an organization living off a long-term capital fund. The 40% budget cut has already led to painful but necessary personnel decisions and the winding down of several initiatives.
Betting on AI and Abandoning Redundancy
One of the most interesting changes concerns the security of Ethereum clients. Instead of the current model based on the redundancy of multiple independent implementations, the ecosystem will move towards actively using formal verification and artificial intelligence-based tools for bug detection. This is a direct path to reducing codebase maintenance costs and accelerating the deployment of updates.
End of an Era for Research and a New Devcon Format
The Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) division, which handled experimental research in privacy and scaling, has been cut. However, work on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) will not stop. The focus is shifting from fundamental research to the direct implementation of ready-made solutions into the protocol and user infrastructure. Additionally, the ecosystem's main conference, Devcon, will become less large-scale and costly. Buterin also stated that he will personally fund some projects that fall outside the scope of Ethereum's own development.
Course for Stability After Strawmap
In the long term, the Ethereum co-founder advocates for a conservative development path. After the completion of the Strawmap program, he suggests focusing on fixing vulnerabilities and making small but practically valuable improvements. According to Buterin, Ethereum should take less inspiration from multi-million-line codebases and more from Bitcoin.
Analyst's Opinion. The EF restructuring is a long-overdue step. The transition from a "money-burning startup" model to a managed fund is a sign of ecosystem maturity. Betting on AI and formal verification for security instead of supporting dozens of clients is a bold but potentially very effective solution. However, the 40% budget cut and the closure of PSE send a signal to the community: the era of "easy money" for developers is over. Now, every spent ether must bring measurable benefit to the protocol.