The Endless Garden: A New Beginning

My beloved Ethereum community,

Today, I’m thrilled to announce a significant change as I prepare to conclude my tenure as Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation and transition into a new position as its President. This new role will enable me to continue nurturing EF’s institutional connections while broadening the scope of our vision and culture. I am profoundly thankful and excited about the future, and although I made this choice a year prior, recent developments have provided the perfect moment for me to contemplate what genuinely matters to me.

The last few weeks have shed light on something profound about Ethereum—a truth that becomes starkly apparent during moments of strain, when discussions flare up regarding the network’s efficiency or ETH’s market worth. Around the world, teams and individuals discuss Ethereum as if it were their own, yet this very strain is where our greatest power resides: Ethereum is owned by everyone precisely because it is owned by no one. Our ethos of permissionlessness not only tolerates disagreements—it grows stronger through them. Amid this turmoil, we have witnessed new, hopeful energy surfacing, reminding me that it is often in darkness that we spot the north star—something we frequently overlook.

I would like to reference Stewart Brand’s Pace Layering to express my perspective on Ethereum. He offers a framework for how the world operates, inspired by Brian Eno’s Shearing Layers. Over time, this model has influenced a myriad of notable individuals, technologists, artists, futurists, and organizations.

Preserving Ethereum’s Values

Where does Ethereum align within these layers? Is it positioned in the fast-paced outer areas, where swift experimentation unfolds? Or at the center, where nature and culture progress at a slower pace? I don’t believe the answer lies entirely in either domain. If we desire Ethereum to be more than a fleeting product, if we wish it to integrate into the world’s fabric for the long haul, we require all layers, operating at all speeds. And if we want Ethereum to avoid being limited to a transient product of a single company, then all layers cannot—and should not—be under the control of EF.

The Ethereum Foundation endeavors to uncover gaps and imbalances throughout these layers. EF’s role has never been to dominate or own all sectors of Ethereum. Instead, our duty—our responsibility—centers on maintaining Ethereum’s values. Through both our actions and our inactions, we are accountable for ensuring that Ethereum remains resilient—not just as a network, but as a broader ecosystem of individuals, ideas, and principles—never reduced to merely a product of a single organization.

The essence of credible neutrality does not imply treating everything uniformly; it involves making principled decisions that safeguard Ethereum’s integrity at its core. Our philosophy of subtraction is frequently misinterpreted: It is not minimalism, nor does it signify doing less for the sake of doing less. It is a style of subtractive design thinking that emphasizes outcomes rather than strict methodologies. Subtraction is not the approach, but the end we aspire to: a landscape with fewer imbalances and diminished centralization that could undermine Ethereum’s values. Rather than presuming that less is inherently better, this mindset acknowledges that achieving balance often necessitates thoughtful complexity or adding new mechanisms to ensure that no single entity, including EF, dominates Ethereum’s development.

Driven by philosophy

EF has facilitated the initiation of new projects, organizations, and individuals by owning solely what we are best positioned to manage. Numerous decisions, informed by this philosophy, have enabled Ethereum to grow into the largest ecosystem of its kind while maintaining its boundless potential. Ethereum has the ability to do everything, be everywhere, and serve everyone, powered by the brightest talents, and it must remain free from capture. These principles are our guiding light, and this is how we fulfill the original vision of Ethereum as the world computer.

This philosophy permeates everything we undertake.

Here are some instances where our actions have influenced Ethereum R&D and infrastructure:

• Rather than exerting control, we supervise All Core Dev calls to create room for technical decisions to arise from community wisdom.
• We encourage client diversity, not merely in quantity, but to ensure clients are successful and sustained by different teams throughout the ecosystem to avoid single points of failure. The client incentive program has also been assisting client teams in their endeavors.
• We assist in the coordination of R&D interop retreats, recognizing that genuine breakthroughs occur when diverse teams exchange ideas.
• Certain initiatives begin as seeds that we sow—like Account Abstraction or cross-L2 coordination, yet they are designed to evolve beyond our initial care and now thrive through community support.
• The Merge, alongside the transition to proof of stake, was nothing short of a mission-impossible. Not solely due to the need for seamless execution while thousands of applications continued to operate, but also because it necessitated a delicate equilibrium: leadership without control, coordination without centralization.

Devcon has evolved into something truly exceptional within the Ethereum ecosystem. It is not a conventional conference, and it offers a venue where community hubs and domain-specific events are directed by those promoting progress in their respective areas of the ecosystem. We concentrate on fostering leadership within varied communities, empowering them to shape their own visions and connect with their constituents. Although this methodology complicates coordination, demands increased time and resources, and requires us to embrace a level of unpredictability, we believe this is the optimal way to embody what Ethereum genuinely represents—a network of independentyet interconnected societies, each adding to the entirety. Devconnect, which we have organized since 2021, serves as a natural expansion of this ideology: establishing environments for profound, concentrated collaboration while enabling various communities to steer in their individual fashions.

In implementing our initiatives with this ideology, I have urged our team to maintain a fundamental principle: EF must persist in evolving, similar to how Ethereum itself is a living, dynamic organism. Nonetheless, we must evade evolving like a conventional corporation, as our aim isn’t for EF to “succeed” – it is for Ethereum to triumph in the long term while remaining faithful to its core principles. As the ecosystem’s requirements shift, our focus transitions from simply questioning, “How can EF perform this?” to “How can Ethereum achieve this, and what function should EF fulfill?” This doesn’t imply retreating; rather, we advance with purpose, strategy, and intent, perpetually guided by our mission to uphold the integrity and principles of Ethereum.

Irreplaceably Unique

It’s been incredible to observe this expansion of the ecosystem. Seven years ago, when I became part of EF, Ethereum had a smaller number of voices. Involvement—both in constructing and securing the network—was centralized in fewer hands and regions. At that time, as an Eclectic Dreamer (a title I preferred over Executive Director), I frequently pondered: What makes Ethereum not merely different, but irreplaceably unique? The response was always clear yet profound: true resilience, grounded in Ethereum’s principles. Ethereum doesn’t expand like a machine; it flourishes like a garden, bolstered by its biodiversity, thriving because the game as a whole is infinite. This vision—the Infinite Garden—emerged from that insight. Today, Ethereum flourishes as a collage of voices: core developers and researchers enhancing the protocol, L2 teams facilitating scalability, application creators connecting Ethereum to the physical world, and local communities molding its future in their unique ways. This richness—where technical and social innovation intersect and influence each other—isn’t just a characteristic of Ethereum; it’s the reason it persists.

When we hear “decentralization is the sole method to build in my nation” from someone in a region where democracy is compromised, it serves as a reminder of how Ethereum’s technical decisions bear significant human consequences. While this infinite game cannot be played solely by EF, we remain dedicated to upholding the values that enable Ethereum’s technical and social innovation to continue benefiting humanity.

Thank you

When I first broached the idea of shifting to President with Vitalik a year back, it was with the goal of continuing to cultivate the distinct culture of Ethereum, and serving as a voice to connect the gap between Ethereum and the larger global community. As illustrated in Pace Layering, culture evolves at the slowest pace, yet it establishes a robust foundation for all that follows (“If the slow elements aren’t occasionally exasperating, they aren’t fulfilling their role – SB”). Culture endures far beyond market cycles, supports us through winter, and propels us through spring.

My gratitude extends to every individual who formed a part of my journey over the last seven years, and to those who motivated me to remain true to myself. Growing EF and supporting Ethereum often necessitated unconventional approaches, and resolutions that defied traditional organizational wisdom. I am deeply thankful to those who inspired me to remain bold, and to have faith that adhering to our values would illuminate the path ahead. It has never been a simple journey, and I could not have accomplished it without you. And my sincere gratitude goes out to everyone at the Ethereum Foundation, past and present, who patiently and courageously engaged in this extraordinary and unconventional expedition together.

Thank you to all who continue to remind me why we are here in the first place.

Let’s keep cultivating in the garden.

—

Aya Miyaguchi