'Ethereum Foundation believes in Defipunk', says org as it forms team to support protocol development

The Ethereum Foundation is doubling down on "DeFipunk," and putting resources behind it.

The non-profit foundation is carving out a DeFi unit to support new protocol development under its App Relations team, according to an announcement on Monday.

As part of the new effort, former CEO of DELV and MakerDAO governance architect Charles St. Louis, and Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivan (aka ivangbi), were named as DeFi Protocol Specialist and DeFi Coordinator, respectively. EF's Jason Chaskin leads the App Relations team, which is part of the wider Ecosystem Acceleration unit, according to the EF's org chart.

"We want to see DeFi thrive, but we're opinionated about what it should look like: permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open source," the team wrote. "We recognize the challenges involved in fully getting to this point—our role is to advocate for these principles, support teams working toward them, showcase the ones doing it, and be clear about how to get there and why it matters."

"The Ethereum Foundation believes in Defipunk: not finance that’s marginally better than TradFi, but finance that couldn’t exist without Ethereum," St. Louis added on X. DeFipunk is the belief that DeFi should be guided by core cypherpunk concerns.

The blog notes speculative developments like "user-controlled AI and high-throughput onchain futures markets" for hedging, as well as cryptonative ideas like futarchy DAOs and ZK-powered private undercollateralized lending. The team will also support existing DeFi projects, in addition to "DeFi as it will exist tomorrow," according to the blog.

In addition to contributing to research efforts in protocol security and application design, the DeFi team will create "clear channels for DeFi teams to connect with the EF" as well as public channels for sharing app updates and supporting DeFi-focused events and news. It will also collaborate with the EF’s Privacy Cluster, which was reformed last year.

The move is part of the EF’s ongoing efforts to effectively allocate resources and communicate Ethereum’s potential, kick-started by a high-level reorganization last year.