The Ethereum ecosystem is undergoing significant changes as researchers and developers propose new solutions to address centralization concerns and enhance network efficiency. The Ethereum Foundation recently announced a new leadership structure, appointing Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-directors to guide the network’s transition into a more scalable and resilient system. Meanwhile, a new research proposal suggests decentralizing Ethereum’s block-building process through a shared random algorithm, aiming to reduce Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) concentration and improve transaction fairness.
Ethereum Foundation Announces New Leadership Amid Growing Ecosystem Challenges
The Ethereum Foundation has officially unveiled a revamped leadership structure, appointing Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-directors. Wang, a long-time researcher at the Foundation, and Stańczak, the CEO of Nethermind—one of the most widely used execution clients on Ethereum—are set to assume their roles on March 17.
The announcement, made on March 1, shows Ethereum’s need to transition from an early-stage experimental network to a globally adopted, censorship-resistant financial and software base layer.
“Over the next few years, the Ethereum ecosystem needs to navigate the challenging transition from being an early-stage project serving a small number of enthusiasts to being a robust, permissionless, censorship-resistant base layer of the global finance and software stack,” the Ethereum Foundation stated.
This shift in leadership comes at a crucial moment as Ethereum faces increasing pressure from competing high-throughput blockchains, the rise of Layer-2 scaling solutions, and a fluctuating market environment.
Hsiao-Wei Wang brings seven years of research experience within the Ethereum Foundation, focusing on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus and the development of Ethereum 2.0. She has been an integral part of the transition to Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network and has played a role in the development of critical upgrades like EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding) and the upcoming Dencun hard fork.
Tomasz Stańczak, on the other hand, has led Nethermind, an Ethereum execution client that has grown from a small-scale project to one of the most influential infrastructure providers in the Ethereum ecosystem. His leadership has been instrumental in optimizing Ethereum’s execution layer, ensuring that it remains competitive amid a rapidly evolving blockchain landscape.
With their combined expertise in protocol research, execution layer development, and organizational scaling, the duo is expected to guide Ethereum through its next phase of expansion while addressing the concerns raised by developers, investors, and the broader community.
Ethereum’s Challenges: Price Volatility, Layer-2 Expansion, and Competition
While Ethereum remains the dominant smart contract platform, it is currently facing several key challenges:
Market Struggles: Ethereum’s price has struggled to reclaim previous highs. The bear market has led to declining investor sentiment, with many questioning whether Ethereum’s long-term value proposition can sustain itself amid macroeconomic uncertainties.
Layer-2 Scaling Concerns: Ethereum’s push for Layer-2 adoption has led to fears that rollups and sidechains are cannibalizing demand for Ethereum’s mainnet. Solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and zkSync process millions of transactions daily at a fraction of the cost, potentially reducing the need for high-value transactions on the Layer-1 Ethereum network.
Competitor Chains: Ethereum is facing growing competition from high-throughput blockchains like Solana, Aptos, and Sui, which offer faster transaction speeds and lower fees without requiring Layer-2 solutions. The rise of these alternative networks has led some developers and users to explore alternative ecosystems that offer a more seamless experience.
Recognizing the challenges ahead, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin laid out a comprehensive strategy for strengthening Ethereum’s long-term sustainability in a Jan. 23 blog post.
His proposal includes:
Increasing blob count to enhance Ethereum’s data availability and reduce transaction costs on rollups.
Encouraging Layer-2 solutions to contribute fees to Ethereum’s base layer, ensuring that Layer-1 remains economically sustainable.
Exploring new revenue streams for the Ethereum Foundation to reduce reliance on direct ETH sales.
This strategy aligns with the Ethereum Foundation’s latest financial maneuvers, which include depositing 45,000 ETH (approximately $120 million) into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols like Aave, Compound, and Spark to generate yield.
The move was widely praised by the Ethereum community, as it demonstrated that the Foundation is actively seeking sustainable funding mechanisms beyond just selling ETH into the open market—a practice that has previously raised concerns about price suppression.
Boosting Ethereum’s Marketing and Social Media Presence
Beyond technical improvements, the Ethereum Foundation has increased its focus on marketing and institutional outreach to ensure Ethereum’s long-term success.
On March 1, longtime Ethereum developer Danny Ryan and Vivek Raman launched Etherealize, an initiative focused on marketing Ethereum to institutional investors.
The Foundation has also been hiring for a social media manager to revamp Ethereum’s online presence and engagement strategy.
With these new efforts, the Ethereum Foundation is aiming to attract more institutional investors, developers, and users while addressing concerns about Ethereum’s long-term scalability and competitiveness.
As Wang and Stańczak take over leadership responsibilities on March 17, all eyes will be on how they navigate Ethereum’s path forward. Their success will depend on their ability to:
Strengthen Ethereum’s Layer-1 economics while ensuring that Layer-2 solutions remain contributors rather than competitors.
Maintain Ethereum’s decentralization and censorship resistance despite increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Accelerate innovation to keep pace with new-generation blockchain networks offering superior performance.
With the Dencun upgrade expected to roll out soon and Ethereum’s next major roadmap milestones under discussion, this new leadership era marks a critical turning point for the Ethereum ecosystem.
Will Ethereum solidify its dominance as the world’s premier smart contract platform, or will new competitors chip away at its market share? The answer will depend on how effectively the Foundation and its new leaders adapt to the evolving crypto landscape.
Ethereum Researcher Proposes “Decentralized Random Block Proposal” to Combat MEV Centralization
A new research proposal aims to decentralize Ethereum’s block-building process by implementing a shared random algorithm, addressing concerns that Ethereum’s Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) ecosystem has become overly centralized.
Pseudonymous Ethereum researcher Malik672 introduced the "Decentralized Random Block Proposal" (DRBP) on March 1, suggesting that this new system could eliminate MEV at the block level, improve transaction propagation speeds, and fully democratize block proposal rights across the Ethereum network.
While Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) and the Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) model have helped redistribute MEV concentration, they have also led to increased centralization among builders and relays. According to recent data, just two block builders—Beaverbuild and Titan Builder—controlled nearly 80% of all Ethereum blocks in early October 2023.
“This system flips that: block-building spreads to thousands of clients globally, fully democratizing the process. No single entity dominates—unlike PBS’s builder pool or a centralized mixer—and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mitigates mempool variance, ensuring robustness,” Malik672 stated.
Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) refers to the profits block proposers can extract by reordering, including, or censoring transactions before they are finalized on-chain. While MEV has become an integral part of Ethereum’s transaction dynamics, it has led to a variety of profit-driven manipulation strategies, including:
Front-running: A trader pays a higher gas fee to have their transaction processed before another, exploiting price movements.
Sandwich attacks: A transaction is placed between two others to manipulate asset prices for profit.
Arbitrage and liquidations: Bots aggressively search for arbitrage opportunities across decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Although Ethereum’s PBS model was designed to separate the roles of block proposers and block builders—reducing centralization among Ethereum’s validators—the result has been an unintended concentration of power among specialized MEV block builders and relays.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter recently highlighted that in the first two weeks of October 2023, 88.7% of Ethereum blocks were built by just two entities—Beaverbuild and Titan Builder. While this figure has since dropped to 80%, it remains significantly higher than what the Ethereum community considers acceptable for a decentralized network.
“The current model undermines Ethereum’s decentralized ethos, as MEV exploitation disproportionately benefits a select group of entities at the expense of average network users,” Malik672 warned.
Under Malik672’s proposal, all Ethereum clients—not just specialized block builders—would participate in block construction. Instead of builders competing based on the highest fees extracted from MEV strategies, blocks would be proposed using a cryptographically random selection process.
This method ensures fairness, reduces centralized control, and eliminates MEV-driven manipulation while maintaining Ethereum’s trustless and permissionless principles.
To ensure network security and consistency, the system would leverage Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanisms, which allow consensus to be reached even if a fraction of participants behave maliciously.
BFT would play a crucial role in:
Preventing mempool variance, ensuring all clients receive the same transaction data before block construction.
Eliminating the need for centralized builders, since block selection would be random.
Reducing censorship risks, as no single entity would have ongoing control over block ordering.
Ethereum’s current slot time is 12 seconds, meaning a new block is produced every 12 seconds. However, under DRBP, slot times could be reduced to just 6-8 seconds, enhancing transaction throughput and network efficiency.
This would mark a significant improvement in Ethereum’s scalability—especially as the network prepares for Danksharding, which will require a more optimized block propagation mechanism.
Ethereum’s Technical Roadmap and the Push for Faster Upgrades
The proposal comes amid broader efforts within Ethereum’s core developer community to accelerate the network’s upgrade cycle. On Feb. 13, Ethereum developers and researchers agreed to implement upgrades at a faster cadence to prevent stagnation in the network’s development.
One of the key focuses is Ethereum’s Layer-2 scalability through Danksharding, which will introduce “blob-carrying transactions” to improve rollup efficiency. Malik672's proposal aligns with this vision by ensuring that Ethereum’s base layer remains competitive while Layer-2 solutions continue to scale.
Ethereum researchers and developers have welcomed discussions about decentralizing block building, but some have raised concerns about implementation challenges.
Critics argue that:
A cryptographically random selection process could introduce security risks if not properly designed.
BFT mechanisms require significant computation overhead, which might impact the efficiency of validators.
Ethereum’s builder ecosystem relies on strong economic incentives—removing these could disrupt existing MEV marketplaces.
Despite these concerns, proponents believe that a decentralized block-building mechanism is necessary to preserve Ethereum’s core values of permissionlessness, trustlessness, and decentralization.
