The Ethereum Foundation recently revealed a restructuring of its internal framework, which includes renaming its research and development division.
A strategic restructuring of the core development team was outlined in a release by the Ethereum Foundation on June 2. The reorganization aims to enhance focus, foster stronger collaboration, and accelerate advancements toward Ethereum’s goals for scalability and user experience.
As part of the broader reorganization, a central change involves the dismissal of multiple employees and the renaming of the Protocol Research & Development (PR&D) division to simply ‘Protocol.’ Subsequently, the newly structured team will concentrate on three main objectives: enhancing Layer 1 scalability, advancing user experience, and increasing blobspace capacity.”
This means some members of PR&D won’t be continuing with the Ethereum Foundation,” stated the release, adding that “We must rethink our current approach to designing, developing and stewarding the protocol. This process of “shipping protocol” is messy, asking us to respond proactively to demands that are hard to articulate and even harder to fulfill.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed at ETHGlobal Prague that the Ethereum network will likely achieve a tenfold increase in Layer 1 scalability within the next year. Significantly, this development follows his January 2025 remarks, in which he outlined major transformations on the horizon for the leadership structure of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Consequently, leaders across the industry are actively calling for ecosystem enhancements, thereby driving the restructuring to address operational inconsistencies and effectively tackle emerging security issues.
Ethereum Faces Security Concerns Over Pectra Upgrade
Earlier this year, malicious actors actively exploited vulnerabilities in the Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-7702. Their actions exposed critical flaws and emphasized the urgent need for developers to adopt a more targeted and refined strategy in protocol development.
The Ethereum community introduced EIP-7702 to enhance wallet functionality by allowing regular accounts to temporarily act like smart contracts. However, this change has opened the door to new vulnerabilities. On-chain analysts and cybersecurity firms have reported a surge in wallet-draining attacks. They link the exploit to the delegation feature recently added in the protocol, raising serious concerns about the safety of these latest modifications.
In a significant move, the Ethereum Foundation recently restructured its organization to address internal inefficiencies and, moreover, to strengthen trust in the long-term goals of its protocol development agenda.
