Former Ethereum Foundation Researchers Launch Independent R&D Lab
Some of Ethereum's most prominent protocol researchers have left the Ethereum Foundation to start something new.
Announced Monday, Ethlabs is a non-profit research and development lab founded by five former EF researchers—Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma—and backed by publicly traded ETH treasury companies BitMine and SharpLink, plus SNZ Holding and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, with over 50 ecosystem contributors also on board.
Its stated mission: make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.
The lab’s initial focus is on removing the technical obstacles that prevent large financial institutions from operating on Ethereum at scale, i.e. faster settlement, cross-chain infrastructure, mainnet capacity, and ETH’s monetary properties.
The launch comes amid a wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation, including two co-executive directors this year alone.
The Foundation itself welcomed the news—albeit somewhat reserved—stating that “the privilege of stewarding Ethereum must not be hoarded, but carefully shared.”
Lubin echoed that framing, describing Ethlabs as one of several new stewardship nodes forming around Ethereum—complementing, rather than replacing, the Foundation.
Whether Ethlabs becomes the one to “save Ethereum” remains to be seen. One thing that is clear for now is that Ethereum’s research ecosystem is no longer centered solely in the Foundation.
Read the full story, including the lab’s thesis, its three-pillar framework for Ethereum’s future, and what the Ethereum Foundation said about the broader wave of new organizations now entering the picture, over on CryptoEvents.
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