Summary
- Ethlabs, a new non-profit R&D organization, has been established by former Ethereum Foundation researchers.
- Funding for the initiative comes from Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and publicly traded ETH treasury firms BitMine and Sharplink.
- This announcement follows the recent exit of a co-director from the Ethereum Foundation.
Ethlabs has emerged as a non-profit research and development entity created by past researchers from the Ethereum Foundation, with the objective of enhancing the network and its cryptocurrency for wider institutional acceptance.
The initiative receives backing from major publicly listed Ethereum treasury firms, including BitMine Immersion Technologies and Sharplink, alongside Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin.
Over 50 additional contributors from the Ethereum ecosystem, including those involved in layer-2 networks, venture capital, and decentralized projects, have also expressed their support. (Note: Lubin, through Consensys, and Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee are investors in Dastan, the parent company of Decrypt.)
“We believe this is a pivotal time for Ethereum. Adoption is occurring, and the global economy is transitioning to on-chain solutions,” stated Ethlabs Executive Director and co-founder Ansgar Dietrichs on X. “Our goal is to assist Ethereum in realizing its full potential and to establish it as a shared global settlement layer.”
The establishment of the lab follows the departure of co-director Hsiao-Wei Wang from the Ethereum Foundation just a week prior, reflecting a trend of significant exits from the organization responsible for the network's growth and future.
Ethlabs positions itself as a new entity focused on its mission to “make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.”
“We see Ethereum as ready for substantial growth in institutional adoption and by AI agents. Consequently, there is a pressing need for the ecosystem to significantly increase its investment in talent and research to facilitate this expansion,” remarked Lee in a statement.
“The creation of Ethlabs signifies that crucial stakeholders are taking steps to ensure Ethereum remains at the forefront of decentralized finance.”
The founding researchers at Ethlabs have previously worked on areas such as finality, scaling, and protocol economics, but their initial emphasis will be on enabling institutions to operate on-chain at scale.
“We bridge two realms: practical usage from innovative builders and the protocol that must support it,” the organization noted on X, emphasizing its collaboration with users and developers to create necessary standards and products.
Critics within the Ethereum community have long expressed concerns regarding the Ethereum Foundation's long-term vision and management of the network.
Recently, Ethereum researcher Dankrand Fiest, who transitioned from the Ethereum Foundation to Stripe’s stablecoin network Tempo, suggested that a new organization could potentially “save Ethereum” if it aligned economically with the network and its native token, ETH.
Specific financial details for Ethlabs have not been revealed, and the organization has clarified that its funders will not dictate the research direction.
Despite the positive news, Ethereum's price has shown little reaction, increasing by just 0.1% over the past 24 hours. The second-largest cryptocurrency is currently trading around $1,732, reflecting a decline of over 16% in the past month and down 65% from its peak of $4,946.
A representative from Ethlabs did not provide an immediate response to Decrypt's inquiry.