The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol team undergoes leadership changes with Barnabe Monnot and Tim Beiko leaving, while new co-leaders focus on network upgrades.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has announced a significant restructuring within its Protocol team, marking a pivotal moment for the organization. Key developers Barnabe Monnot and Tim Beiko are departing, while Alex Stokes is taking a temporary creative hiatus.
The new leadership team will consist of:
- Will Corcoran, serving as research coordinator focusing on zkVM and post-quantum consensus;
- Kev Vedderburn, leading the zkEVM team;
- Fredrik, overseeing protocol security.
Corcoran stated that the team will be concentrating on updates for the Glamsterdam and Hegota projects. Planned enhancements include raising the gas limit to 200 million and implementing a system to distinguish between the block proposer and builder. Future upgrades will also aim to bolster the network's defenses against censorship.
This leadership change follows a wave of layoffs at the EF, including the recent departure of Josh Stark and the earlier exit of co-executive director Tomas Stanczak. Several specialists have shifted their focus to external initiatives, such as the Tempo network.
Monnot, who spent over six years with the EF, cited a desire to concentrate on product development and improve user experience as reasons for his departure.
The Protocol division plays a crucial role in the design, security, and scalability of Ethereum's base layer and is responsible for organizing AllCoreDevs developer meetings and conducting research in cryptography.
Earlier this year, Gnosis and Zisk, with the support of the EF, established a framework aimed at unifying the currently fragmented ecosystem of layer two networks. In April, Gnosis co-founder Frederike Ernst noted that the initiative would be open to more than just L2 solutions.
