Ethereum Core Developer: Ethereum Enters Institutional Inheritance Phase, Facing Challenges of Funding and Legitimacy Redistribution

On June 19, Ethereum core developer Trent Van Epps published a lengthy analysis on the evolution of Ethereum's institutional structure, exploring its future political and economic pathways and the issue of "institutional inheritance." He pointed out that Ethereum is currently entering a critical institutional turning point, including legitimacy distribution, governance structure evolution, and a potential funding crisis for the protocol. The Ethereum Foundation has long adhered to a "subtraction" philosophy, aiming to reduce its centralized influence within the ecosystem, allowing value to be generated more externally. However, this strategy, while reducing power concentration, has also led to the problem of "unclear legitimacy boundaries," making it difficult for the ecosystem to naturally generate alternative institutional centers. On the funding front, Ethereum is approaching a potential "structural funding gap," including the conclusion of the protocol incentive program (CIP) in 2026 and the consumption of the Foundation's ETH reserves, which may lead to long-term pressure that could reduce core development funding to around $30 million. Without sustained funding mechanisms, the core development team and infrastructure capabilities may face the risk of attrition, affecting the network's long-term reliability and potentially creating an "unfunded protocol burden." After completing its early historical mission, the Ethereum Foundation's role is transitioning from a "single dominant entity" to a "institutional transition node," with the key issue for the next phase of the ecosystem being how to achieve a smooth inheritance from the existing institutions to the new governance structure.