Why did a key figure of the Ethereum Foundation leave after less than a year in office?

Original Title: Has the EF Changed Personnel Again? E Guardian: Got Used to It

Original Author: bootly, BitpushNews

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is once again at a crossroads of personnel turmoil.

Tomasz Stańczak, the co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, announced that he will step down at the end of this month. This comes just 11 months after he and Hsiao-Wei Wang took over from the long-serving Aya Miyaguchi to form a new leadership core.

He will be succeeded by Bastian Aue. There is very little public information about him; his X account has been registered for only eight months, and he has almost no speaking record. He will continue to co-lead this organization that controls the core resources and direction of the Ethereum ecosystem with Hsiao-Wei Wang.

This seemingly sudden personnel change is, in fact, an inevitable result of the intertwining internal conflicts, external pressures, and strategic transformations within the Ethereum Foundation.

A Critical Mission: A Turbulent Year

To understand Stańczak's departure, we must first return to the context of his appointment.

At the beginning of 2025, the Ethereum community was in a state of anxiety. At that time, following the U.S. elections, the cryptocurrency market was generally on the rise, Bitcoin was hitting new highs, and competing chains like Solana were gaining momentum, while Ethereum's price performance was relatively weak, making the Ethereum Foundation a target of criticism.

The criticism was directed squarely at then-executive director Aya Miyaguchi. The developer community complained that the foundation was severely out of touch with frontline builders, that there were conflicts of interest in strategic direction, and that the promotion of Ethereum was insufficient. Some questioned whether the foundation was too "laid-back," adopting a mild stance of positioning itself as a "coordinator" rather than a "leader," which was causing Ethereum to lose its first-mover advantage.

As the "central bank" of Ethereum, the foundation was expected to take strong action rather than remain passive.

In this storm of public opinion, Miyaguchi stepped back and entered the board. Stańczak and Wang were called to the front lines.

Stańczak was not a parachute hire. He is the founder of Nethermind, a key player in the execution clients of the Ethereum ecosystem, playing a crucial role in infrastructure development. He understands technology, has entrepreneurial experience, and has a firsthand understanding of community pain points.

In his own words, the directive he received at the beginning of his tenure was very clear: "The community is calling out—you're too chaotic, you need to be a bit more centralized and accelerate to cope with this critical period."

What did they accomplish in this year?

The combination of Stańczak and Wang indeed brought visible changes.

First was organizational efficiency. The foundation laid off 19 employees, streamlined its structure, and attempted to shed its bureaucratic label. The strategic focus shifted from Layer 2 back to Layer 1 itself, clearly stating that it would prioritize scaling the Ethereum mainnet rather than allowing L2s to operate independently. The pace of upgrades noticeably accelerated, and the promotion of EIPs became more decisive than ever.

Secondly, there was a shift in posture. The foundation began releasing a series of videos on social media, proactively explaining Ethereum's technical roadmap and development direction to the public. This "outreach" communication style contrasted sharply with its previously closed and mysterious image.

In terms of strategic layout, Stańczak promoted the exploration of several new directions: privacy protection, responses to quantum computing threats, and the integration of artificial intelligence with Ethereum. Particularly in the AI direction, he explicitly stated that he saw trends in "agent-based systems" and "AI-assisted discovery" reshaping the world.

On the financial side, the foundation began discussing more transparent budget management and funding allocation strategies, attempting to respond to external doubts about the efficiency of its treasury usage.

Vitalik Buterin's evaluation of Stańczak was: "He has greatly improved the efficiency of several departments within the foundation, making the organization more agile in its responses to the external world."

The Subtext of the Resignation Statement

Why leave after less than a year?

Stańczak's resignation statement was quite candid and somewhat thought-provoking. He provided several key points:

First, he believes that the Ethereum Foundation and the entire ecosystem are "in a healthy state." It is time to pass the baton.

Second, he wants to return to being a "hands-on product builder," focusing on the integration of AI and Ethereum. He mentioned that his current mindset is similar to when he founded Nethermind in 2017.

Third, and perhaps most intriguing, he stated: "The leadership of the foundation is becoming increasingly confident in making decisions and controlling more affairs. Over time, my ability to execute independently within the foundation has diminished. If I continue to stay, by 2026 I would be more like 'waiting to pass the baton.'"

This statement reveals two layers of meaning: first, the new leadership team has formed a self-driven dynamic and no longer needs him to intervene in everything; second, his actual power space may be shrinking: for someone accustomed to being hands-on and with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, this feeling is clearly not fitting for him anymore.

He also mentioned, "I know that many ideas about agent-based AI may not be mature or even useless right now, but it is precisely this kind of experimental spirit that defined the innovative spirit of early Ethereum."

This statement carries a hint of implicit criticism of the current situation: as the organization becomes more "mature" and decision-making becomes more "stable," will that experimental spirit of wild growth be lost?

Stańczak's departure, on the surface, is a personal choice, but behind it lies the long-term dilemma faced by the Ethereum Foundation.

From its inception, this organization has been in an awkward position. Theoretically, Ethereum is decentralized, and the foundation should not become a power center issuing commands. However, in reality, it controls a large amount of funds, core developer resources, and ecological coordination discourse power, objectively assuming the dual roles of "central bank" and "development committee."

This identity paradox has led the foundation to be in a dilemma for a long time: if it does too much, it is accused of being centralized; if it does too little, it is criticized for inaction. During Miyaguchi's tenure, the foundation leaned towards a "coordinator" role and was criticized for being weak; Stańczak attempted to shift towards an "executor" role, which did improve efficiency, but naturally concentrated power distribution within the organization.

Stańczak's resignation statement precisely exposes this tension: as the organization becomes more efficient and decision-making more decisive, the personal space for founding team members is compressed. For an ecosystem that needs to balance "decentralized spirit" and "market competition efficiency," this internal friction is almost unavoidable.

What kind of person is Bastian Aue, who will succeed Stańczak?

There is very little public information about him. His own description on X states that he previously handled "hard-to-quantify but crucial work" at the foundation: assisting management decisions, communicating with team leaders, budget considerations, strategic sorting, and priority setting. This low-key style contrasts sharply with Stańczak's distinct entrepreneurial spirit.

In his statement upon taking over, Aue said: "The basis for my decision-making is a principled adherence to certain attributes of what we are building. The mission of the foundation is to ensure that truly permissionless infrastructure—the core of the cypherpunk spirit—can be established."

This statement sounds more like the language style of the Miyaguchi era: emphasizing principles, emphasizing spirit, and emphasizing coordination rather than dominance.

Does this mean the foundation will rebalance its direction, shifting from "radical execution" back to "principled coordination"? It remains to be seen.

The Confusion of Ethereum

Stańczak's departure comes at a critical juncture for Ethereum, which is discussing a series of significant proposals. According to him, the foundation is about to release several key documents, including the specific plan for "Lean Ethereum," future development roadmap, and DeFi coordination mechanisms.

The "Lean Ethereum" proposal has been jokingly referred to by some community members as "the weight loss era of Ethereum"—aiming to simplify protocols and reduce burdens to allow the mainnet to operate more efficiently.

These directional documents will profoundly impact the evolution path of Ethereum in the coming years. The replacement of the core executive leader at this moment undoubtedly adds uncertainty to the implementation of these proposals.

The broader context is that Ethereum is facing challenges from multiple fronts: competition from high-performance chains like Solana, the fragmentation of Layer 2, a new narrative window for the integration of AI and blockchain, and the impact of overall market sentiment fluctuations on ecological funding and attention.

On the same day that Stańczak announced his departure, ETH briefly fell into the $1800 range. If it continues to drop below this threshold, an awkward fact will emerge: the comprehensive return for holding ETH may fall below the cash interest rates in USD.

To put it more painfully: in January 2018, ETH first reached $1400. That $1400, adjusted for U.S. CPI inflation compounding, would be equivalent to about $1806 by February 2026.

In other words, if an investor bought ETH in 2018 and held it without ever participating in staking, after eight years, they not only haven't made money but have even underperformed compared to simply keeping cash in the bank earning interest.

For the "E Guardians" who have believed all along, the real question may not be "who won the route dispute," but rather: how much longer can it last?

The only thing that can be certain is that this core organization, which controls one of the most important ecosystems in the crypto world, is still searching for its position in a rapidly changing industry, and this path is bound to be anything but smooth.