Vitalik Buterin has withdrawn 16,384 ETH (c. $44.7 million) to support the ongoing growth and development of Ethereum, declaring that the Ethereum Foundation has entered a period of “mild austerity” in which some goals may be prioritized over others.
In a lengthy tweet, the Ethereum co-founder argues that such austerity is necessary for the Foundation to achieve two interrelated goals: the realization of an “aggressive” roadmap that advances Ethereum’s utility as a decentralized “world computer”; and the protection of users' ability to access Ethereum “with self-sovereignty, security and privacy.”
Coming as the price of Ethereum falls to a six-month low of $2,710, Buterin’s post also revealed that he will taking more of a leading role in special development projects, with a particular focus on producing open-source applications in such areas as finance, communication, governance, operating systems, biotech, and secure hardware.
He said, “If you have seen [...] my own enthusiasm and use for privacy-preserving, walkaway-test-friendly and local-first software (including operating systems), then you know the general spirit of what I am planning to support.”
It was here that Buterin noted he had withdrawn 16,384 ETH from his own funds to pursue such goals “over the next few years,” and that he will also seek out “decentralized staking options” in order to grow the pool of available funds.
Decrypt has reached out to the Ethereum Foundation for comment.
Funding Ethereum projects through “mild austerity”
While the use of the term “austerity” may potentially alarm some observers, particularly during a bearish market, some commentators emphasize that Buterin’s intent is much more about directing funding to valuable R&D activities than limiting funding altogether.
“I read the comment as one about focus, on building the protocol in a particular direction,” said Lex Sokolin, Managing Partner at Generative Ventures, and the former chief economist at ConsenSys.
Speaking to Decrypt, Sokolin noted how ETH has largely traded sideways over the past few years, and that Buterin’s comments are a sign of recognition that “narrative-driven investment” is no longer very effective as a source of growth for onchain projects and Ethereum more generally.
“All things have to show fundamentals, not just conferences and unicorns,” he said. “We have seen compression in value in prior R&D ideas like restaking, zero-knowledge L2s, and so on.”
Sokolin also explained that, with the wider market mostly focused on real-world assets, stablecoins and other commercial activities, the Ethereum Foundation will have to step in to fund things that may not be commercially viable off the bat, but that are still essential to Ethereum’s development.
“I think Vitalik will fund projects that are important to him—open source, privacy and self sovereignty focused—outside of the Ethereum Foundation,” he explained.
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