His comments came due to the growing frustration surrounding the Ethereum Foundation after the departures of several high-profile contributors, including Feist himself, Danny Ryan, Carl Beek, and Julian Ma. Feist also criticized the foundation’s limited ETH holdings and lack of direct exposure to staking and fee revenues, arguing that this weakens its connection to Ethereum’s long-term success. Ethereum Foundation Under Fire Frustration within the Ethereum community intensified this week after former Ethereum Foundation developer Dankrad Feist proposed the creation of a new organization to help “save” Ethereum and restore confidence in the network’s long-term direction. Feist argued that the Ethereum ecosystem now needs an institution that is directly aligned with Ethereum’s economic success and more accountable to the community. In a post that was shared on X, Feist suggested forming a new ETH-focused organization backed by at least $1 billion in funding and led by what he described as competent leadership. According to him, the current structure of the Ethereum Foundation no longer provides the level of alignment or accountability needed to support Ethereum’s growth and value appreciation. He proposed that the new entity should actively work toward increasing Ethereum’s value while funding itself partially through staking rewards and blockchain fee revenue. The Ethereum Foundation currently serves as the non-profit organization overseeing development and stewardship of the Ethereum ecosystem. However, dissatisfaction with the foundation has been building for years as several respected contributors and researchers left the organization. Feist himself departed the Ethereum Foundation last year to join Tempo, an alternative Layer 1 blockchain project. Former Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan, who many community members once saw as a potential future leader of the foundation, also left and later co-founded Etherealize. The latest concerns escalated after Ethereum Foundation researchers Carl Beek and Julian Ma reportedly resigned this week. Feist also criticized the Ethereum Foundation’s financial positioning, and pointed out that the organization now controls less than 0.1% of the total ETH supply and does not meaningfully benefit from Ethereum staking rewards or transaction fee revenues. He suggested this weakens the foundation’s ability to stay economically connected to the success of the network it helps maintain. Despite his criticism, Feist is still one of Ethereum’s most influential contributors. During his time in the ecosystem, he helped create the Danksharding design that improved Layer 2 scalability efforts. He was also involved in ambitious proposals like EIP-9698, which aimed to dramatically increase Ethereum’s gas limits and improve network capacity.
