Original author: Bankless
Original translation: Vernacular 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 continued selling of coins. In this interview, the two responded one by one:
Direct explanations were given to community questions, including the necessity of the coin selling operation.
Elaborate on the three strategic focuses of expanding L1, expanding Blobs, and improving user experience.
Clarify the technology development path from Pectra to Fusaka (expected in the fall) and then to the Amsterdam upgrade next year.
The plan is to increase the hard fork cycle to 6 months , and propose long-term expansion goals, such as expanding 100 times in four years .
The following is a partial excerpt from the interview, compiled by Baihua Blockchain:
Q1: Please introduce your background and how you came to this position at the Ethereum Foundation?
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. merged). My role is a bit like a co-lead of the Foundations consensus RD team, mainly responsible for the specifications of the consensus layer, and as a coordinator between the research side and the client (CL).
Before I joined the leadership team, I thought the role of a Foundation Fellow was very special, not just researching features. We also care about how these features will impact users. I joined the leadership team last December. This experience helped me to serve as co-executive director with Tomasz.
Tomasz Stanczak: I was introduced to Ethereum at a small meetup in London around the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016. I was working in the traditional finance industry at the time. 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 specialized tools sooner or later, like a data market. Joining Flashbots in 2020 to work on the MEV solution greatly accelerated my journey. At the time, I was also working on the Oiler project, trying to build a block space Gas transaction solution. Nethermind grew to about 300 people and 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 participants. We need to establish principles for ourselves that should not be shaken frequently, 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 make a big difference, and there are a lot of talented people who can do a lot of communication. This is almost the first thing I tackle before I officially start working. With my experience building clients, I can look at the challenges from a technical perspective. Ive been opening up my calendar over the past few weeks to listen to feedback. We hope that the Foundation will communicate more actively and not avoid difficult issues, even if it sometimes makes people uncomfortable.
Q3: Aya Miyaguchis era was defined as gain by subtraction. How would 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, working to bring about dynamic, short-term changes in the next year or two. Just like you planted a garden, now you need to prune everything that grows there. I want Ethereum to be seen as the global neutral layer for the global economy and transactions.
This is about winning through influence, bringing the values we really care about: when we talk about privacy, security, open source access, and censorship resistance of the protocol, these are important to us. If the protocol is not influential and integrated into all future economic, governance, and AI processes, we cant achieve these. The success of L1 will empower L2 and together spread the values of Ethereum. In the future, everything should run on Ethereum just like on the Internet.
Shay Wong: I tell myself to lead with clarity, act with purpose, and build without obsession. Its about the world we want to live in, not just personal achievements. Ethereum should be more than just a product, its 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. Ive probably had 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 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. A lot of people are willing to help, and some people will say, “I’ve been dormant for the past three or four years, but I’m ready to come back and help.” Even people within the Ethereum Foundation are extremely impatient with change and want to get involved themselves.
Q 5: Can these problems—slow speed, lack of communication, and disconnection from reality—be solved?
Tomasz Stanczak: Absolutely. Many problems can be solved by small adjustments in communication and process optimization. The key is to activate the community and internal decision-makers, empower them, and let them act faster, not wait.
We need to bring app developers into the planning phase earlier. And proactively seek out those who are most likely to object to a feature and listen to them at the beginning, thinking about how to build something so important and make everything better that even the naysayers 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 paying more attention to practical applications and user needs?
Tomasz Stanczak: A product-centric mindset is the foundation for achieving our three goals (expanding L1, expanding Blobs, and improving UX). It means that we must constantly think about: Why are we making this change? Who is this for? And let users participate in co-design. At the same time, we must stick to core values and quality standards.
For example, if you think about EOF or scaling L1, ask: How does this affect decentralization? Which users will be affected? What are their opinions? We need to restructure ACD meetings 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 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 will help, and how to get funding?
Q 7: 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 the team and create internal dashboards. In terms of L1 expansion, we have preliminary 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 our organization of 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 some things that the Ethereum Foundation does not actually do or are beyond its scope?
Shay Wong: One controversial thing is selling ETH. The community expects us to hold it, 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 expansion, we prefer to support through funding. The role of EF is more of a coordinator, helping people find the right resources in the ecosystem.
Tomasz Stanczak: The Ethereum Foundation should step in when something is missing from the ecosystem, 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 want to be able to answer questions and provide expertise, rather than avoiding interaction as we may have in the past. We are not the owner of the Ethereum protocol and do not act in the capacity of an owner.
On the engineering side, we have the Geth team, which is important for research, but we dont build consensus clients. We avoid building applications or infrastructure directly because the ecosystem can do better. In terms of business development, we want 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 would like 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 the foundation can do very well. In terms of marketing, we focus on communication and clarity rather than advertising.
Q 9: Regarding the specific roadmap and rhythm, what is the plan for the next hard fork?
Tomasz Stanczak: We plan to speed up the cadence of hard forks to about once every six months. The next one is Pectra, which, in addition to the Max Effective Balance changes related to staking, also has huge improvements in account abstraction and user experience through things like EIP-3074 (SFS 102). We are currently testing it to ensure safety.
After 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 this year, and the key is to ensure that there are 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 accelerated L1 expansion. Some L1 expansion work has already begun, some of which do not require a hard fork, and some require EIP. At the same time, the ecosystem development department led by Jane Smith is restructuring the process to better serve the needs of builders in terms of tokenization, RWA, etc. ACD meetings are also being adjusted to accommodate a faster delivery rhythm and involve application developers earlier.
