The multi-node Ethereum

Ethereum the protocol was always decentralized. The ecosystem around it was less so: much of it ran on Ethereum Foundation funding, and protocol research mostly lived inside the EF. Now the ecosystem is decentralizing too, and it is accelerating. New organizations are taking on work that used to sit with the EF. And new entities exist to fund these nonprofit efforts.

The talk maps this new landscape: who the new organizations are, what they do, and how they get funded. Ethlabs, which I co-founded after years as an EF protocol researcher and lead of the Robust Incentives Group, is one part of this story. I will cover what the change costs (duplication, fragmented funding, slower coordination) and why I think the trade is worth it. This is client diversity for the ecosystem: more friction, but the principled and resilient path. Credible neutrality is Ethereum's most valuable property, and it only holds if no single org is the center of the ecosystem.

Speakers: Caspar Schwarz-Schilling

Track: Core Protocol