Ethereum community in disarray over leadership debate and Buterin authority

Some members of the Ethereum (ETH) community have started distancing themselves from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) amid a leadership debate as Vitalik Buterin defends his authority.

Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently announced "large changes to EF leadership structure" and listed a set of goals for the foundation, such as "Improve level of technical expertise within EF’s leadership."

"Some of this has already been executed on and made public, and some is still in progress," Buterin said.

Meanwhile, the community has questioned the role of Aya Miyaguchi, the executive director of the EF since 2018, pressuring for her removal and the appointment of Ethereum researcher and developer Danny Ryan as the new head of the foundation. The campaign against Miyaguchi went so far that she even received threats online.

This prompted Buterin to push back, stressing that "This is not how this game works" and "The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me."

"One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a 'proper board,' but until that happens, it's me," he added, noting that those advocating for keeping "the pressure on" Miyaguchi "are creating an environment that is actively toxic to top talent."

All these developments have somewhat divided the Ethereum community. A popular Ethereum advocate, antiprosynthesis, posted on X that "Maybe we see a turnaround at the EF, but so far I'm seeing a worrying lack of priorities."

They also urged Buterin and his supporters to "listen to the community, put aside personal relations, and get rid of the unpragmatic 'idealists' in general, in favor of strong leadership that people can actually trust to get the job done rather than be mired in pointless distractions."

Another co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Ethereum development powerhouse ConsenSys, Joseph Lubin, also supported the idea of replacing the current EF executive with Ryan, who could run the foundation in partnership with another Etherean, Jerome de Tychey. Lubin confirmed he has already spoken with de Tychey "on what a transitioned EF might look like."

"We are now in a very different kind of environment in our industry. And it requires a very different kind of Ethereum Foundation," Lubin said, as Ethereum now faces increasing competition from other blockchains, such as Solana (SOL), while the price of ETH against bitcoin (BTC) has decreased in recent years.

The Ethereum Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the development and growth of the Ethereum blockchain and its ecosystem.