This episode reveals the Ethereum Foundation's strategic pivot under new leadership, focusing on aggressive execution, institutional integration, and reclaiming its innovation edge to build a dominant, multi-faceted global economic layer.
A New Chapter for the Ethereum Foundation: Leadership and Vision
- Tomasz Stańczak, one of the new co-executive directors of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), outlines his initial months, marked by hundreds of conversations to diagnose community needs and internal EF dynamics. He emphasizes a renewed focus on "product and delivery on engineering excellence."
- Stańczak describes his proactive approach to talent acquisition, publicly seeking top executives to "structure the entire organization to be focused on on winning and delivering." This signals a shift towards a more results-oriented EF.
- His journey to the role involved initial discussions about leadership and talent management with EF leadership, including Aya Miyaguchi, evolving into a formal offer after further meetings with Vitalik Buterin and the management team, particularly as Danny Ryan's sabbatical prompted leadership considerations.
- Stańczak, speaking from Italy, highlights the importance of shared context and communication within the EF, taking extensive notes from his numerous meetings to identify "common patterns of complaints of asks."
Cultural Evolution: Embracing Institutions and Real-World Integration
- The discussion addresses a perceived cultural shift within the EF. Michael, one of the hosts, notes the EF's original "research-oriented and very idealistic" culture, contrasting it with a recent push towards more business development (BD) and institutional engagement.
- Stańczak acknowledges that while the EF was initially exciting for both builders and enterprises (referencing the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), an organization formed to connect Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts), there was a period where it seemed to distance itself from commercial applications.
- He clarifies that internally, "people love DeFi and are very open to DeFi." The hesitation towards traditional finance stemmed from fears of "capture" and compromising Ethereum's core values.
- However, Stańczak notes a crucial realization: institutions themselves are seeking Ethereum for its values like privacy and censorship resistance. "It's funny enough as the institutions that are pushing for all these values of Ethereum. They say that's why we choose Ethereum."
- This understanding is fostering more openness within the EF to engage with these entities, recognizing that Ethereum's decentralization is robust enough to maintain its neutrality. The current strategy is to "show strength by being very convinced that we know how to maintain those values."
Ethereum's Multifaceted Value Proposition: Beyond Monetary Premium
- The conversation explores Ethereum's unique position. Michael suggests Ethereum sits on a continuum, possessing aspects of Bitcoin's monetary premium while also generating tangible value through fees and utility, akin to DeFi protocols. It serves as collateral, a payment medium for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), unique digital assets representing ownership, and more.
- Stańczak emphasizes that while Ethereum's current dominance in DeFi (Decentralized Finance), a system of financial applications built on blockchain technology, and stablecoins is strong, his focus is on future momentum. This includes user onboarding, developer excitement, and enhancing product, UX, and interoperability.
- Interoperability, the ability of different blockchain systems to exchange and make use of information, is key, not just between Ethereum's L1 (Layer 1), the base blockchain, and its L2s (Layer 2s), scaling solutions built on top of L1, but also with traditional finance and fiat assets.
- Stańczak envisions Ethereum as a "very natural on space" globally, leveraging its neutrality to be accepted across diverse regions.
Strategic Positioning: Fundamentals Over Fleeting Narratives
- The podcast touches upon the debate sparked by Ryan Sean Adams' "blue gospel" concept—whether Ethereum should emulate Bitcoin's "cult-like" marketing.
- Stańczak firmly states the EF's priority: "make sure that the protocol uh shows that resilience and the the long-term growth scaling." This focus on fundamentals is intended to build confidence for a massive global economy on Ethereum, encompassing programmable money, stablecoins, and RWAs (Real-World Assets), which are tangible assets tokenized on the blockchain.
- He believes if Ethereum succeeds in programmability, security, and global neutrality, it can "win in all the aspects." This contrasts with chasing short-term valuation narratives.
- Vance, another host, adds that Ethereum's original values were rooted in "futurism," which aligns well with its deep capital markets, making it a natural home for projects in next-gen energy, AI, and data center capex. This offers a more tangible and impactful vision than mere speculation.
The Intersection of Futurism, AI, and On-Chain Value
- The discussion highlights Ethereum's potential as a platform for futuristic technologies. Vance points out that capital-intensive futurist endeavors like large data centers and next-generation energy naturally pair with Ethereum's robust capital markets.
- Stańczak notes Ethereum's role in decentralizing access and addressing governance in an AI-driven future. He sees blockchain not as a hindrance but as a space for "safety and for additional additional opportunities on on building something novel when we talk about AI,” such as the verification of AI models.
- The concept of REV (Real Economic Value), a metric attempting to measure the actual economic activity and fee generation of a blockchain (excluding inflationary rewards), is discussed. While acknowledging its utility, the speakers agree it's just one piece of the valuation puzzle, especially for a network with a multi-generational vision.
- Vance argues that the long-term vision for blockchains like Ethereum, intended to "last forever," makes traditional DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) analysis inadequate. The true "earnings" are projected far into the future.
Bridging Digital and Physical: The Evolution of NFTs and RWAs
- The conversation explores the maturation of NFTs and DAOs. Michael suggests their initial hype in 2021 lacked connection to the "off-world economy." Now, there's a tangible link through tokenized T-bills and financing for AI data centers and energy projects.
- Stańczak concurs, noting that TradFi's engagement was previously "blocked by regulations." The recent "massive unlock" is enabling institutions to leverage Ethereum's global, borderless infrastructure.
- He foresees a resurgence in NFT innovation, especially with advancements in GenAI (Generative AI). "This will be like new category probably in a year or two," Stańczak predicts, envisioning NFTs as the fabric for future digital ownership and metaverse experiences.
- A compelling anecdote shared by Michael illustrates this: a large bank is exploring tokenizing GPUs as NFTs on-chain, allowing them to be used as collateral for loans, with ownership rights managed by the NFT based on loan status, all compliant with UCC (Uniform Commercial Code), a comprehensive set of laws governing commercial transactions in the US. This signifies a practical, high-value RWA application.
Market Dynamics: Ethereum's DeFi Dominance and L2 Readiness
- The hosts question why DeFi and RWAs seem "sticky" to Ethereum, while consumer applications have seen more traction on Solana.
- Stańczak attributes Ethereum's DeFi strength to "pre-existing liquidity and all the all the components of DeFi that are there that you can later compose."
- He acknowledges Solana's recent success with consumer apps and memecoins, stating, "it's not that we don't want to see it on Ethereum. we absolutely do want to see it in Ethereum." He suggests Ethereum's L2 scaling roadmap matured slightly later than some recent trends but asserts, "now we are ready to take it back."
- The EF plans to foster this by supporting "Superteam-like structures" to incubate new builders and founders on Ethereum L2s, welcoming diverse experiments, including trading and gaming.
Technical Advancements: Real-Time Proving and L1 Scaling Ambitions
- A significant technical breakthrough discussed is real-time proving, with Succinct announcing the ability to generate ZK (Zero-Knowledge) proofs for Ethereum blocks in approximately 9-10 seconds. ZK proofs allow one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself.
- This development has major implications for L2 interoperability, making it faster, cheaper, and more secure.
- While Vitalik Buterin offered cautious optimism, highlighting challenges like worst-case performance and prover decentralization, Stańczak notes that ZK technology has consistently "been exceeding expectations." He sees this as vital for native rollups and overall L2 strength.
- Regarding L1 scaling, Stańczak reveals ambitious goals, referencing Dankrad Feist's target of 3x gas limit increases annually, aiming for a 100x increase from current levels. "You have to start planning with the thing like okay it will be 100x you know there's no no saying no it won't be."
- This aggressive scaling target necessitates re-evaluating core architecture, including the VM and consensus mechanisms, and pushing for breakthroughs in areas like statelessness and ZK-EVMs. The EF is adopting a "goal-first" approach to EIP selection.
The Future of Ethereum: Fusaka, Faster Block Times, and Stablecoin Landscape
- Looking ahead to the Fusaka hard fork (the next planned upgrade for Ethereum after Dencun), the discussion touches on the push for faster block times. Stańczak mentions his call for 1-second block times was to "start the debate" about improving UX and performance, even if initial steps target 4-8 seconds.
- The potential acquisition of Circle, issuer of USDC (USD Coin), a major stablecoin, by Ripple or Coinbase is analyzed. Michael suggests that while an $11 billion bid from Ripple could pose a risk by potentially favoring Ripple's rails, Ethereum's ecosystem is diverse enough, with other stablecoins like Tether ready to fill any void.
- Stańczak believes any acquirer of a major stablecoin issuer will ultimately "get closer to Ethereum" due to its central role in economic activity. He also hopes for more decentralized stablecoin alternatives.
- The progress of the Genius Bill in the US Senate, aimed at regulating stablecoins, is seen as a positive development for bringing clarity to the space.
Concluding Thoughts: A Future of Autonomous Economies
- Tomasz Stańczak expresses excitement about the "new energy" in the Ethereum ecosystem, with widespread support for the EF's renewed focus on execution.
- His long-term vision for Ethereum is profoundly futuristic: "seeing all the autonomous economy like autonomous machines agents everything landing together in Ethereum and start integrating physical and digital world."
- To achieve this, he stresses the immediate need to solve "down to earth problems now with the network," laying the groundwork for Ethereum's next evolutionary stage.
This episode underscores a revitalized Ethereum Foundation, aggressively pursuing technical execution and strategic partnerships. Crypto AI investors and researchers should monitor EF's L1/L2 scaling progress and institutional RWA adoption, as these will significantly shape Ethereum's capacity to host complex AI applications and decentralized economies.
