On March 1, 2025, the Ethereum Foundation announced the appointment of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors, marking another significant personnel adjustment following Aya Miyaguchi's promotion to foundation chair. This change comes at a time of low ETH prices—over the first two months of 2025, there was a massive outflow of BTC ETF funds, with prices dropping from $3,750 to $2,200, a decline of 70%. Meanwhile, community doubts about Ethereum are rising, from the “vampire effect” of Layer2 to the foundation's “shipment controversy,” ETH seems to be caught in “internal and external troubles... but was this personnel change really to “save the market”? Perhaps the answer is more complex.

However, let's talk about the new executive director's “pruning scissors” and “fertilizer formula.”

1. “Pruning scissors”: Subtraction philosophy vs. corporate-style expansion

Before becoming chair, Aya Miyaguchi emphasized that the core of the Ethereum Foundation is the “subtraction philosophy”—not seeking minimalism but maintaining ecological health by reducing imbalances and centralization risks. One of the new co-executive directors' responsibilities is to continue this philosophy, such as:

- Client diversification: Avoid single points of failure, support different teams in maintaining clients.

- R&D coordination: Promote cross-team collaboration (e.g., interoperability workshops), rather than centralized control.

This is like a gardener pruning branches, ensuring that ETH's “garden” does not get overshadowed by the excessive growth of any one tree.

2. “Fertilizer formula”: Community leadership vs. institutional capital

Another challenge for the new executive director is balancing community autonomy with institutional needs. Recently, the Ethereum Foundation was criticized for being “out of touch with its user base,” even urgently hiring a social media manager to improve communication. Vitalik also called for attracting more “young people with a cypherpunk vision” to avoid being dominated by short-term interests. The new leadership must accurately allocate resources when “fertilizing”:

- Academic funding: $2 million to support protocol design and humanities research, solidifying foundational innovation.

- Developer ecosystem: Continue the Devcon and Devconnect model, allowing the community to lead activities.

After all, the “soil” of ETH is its developers and users, not Wall Street ETF funds.

Comparing Ethereum to a “middle-aged tech geek,” the current predicament is a typical “mid-life crisis”:

- Distorted shape (decrease in mainnet transaction volume after Layer2 expansion)?

- Financial pressure (inflation rate 0.713%, mocked by Bitcoin fans)?

- Family conflicts (community accuses the foundation of being a “one-man show”)?

At this time, the two new executive directors are like invited “personal trainers + psychologists”:

- Hsiao-Wei Wang: Responsible for formulating the “fat reduction plan” (subtraction philosophy), cutting redundant protocols.

- Tomasz Stańczak: Serving as the “family mediator,” coordinating the “household affairs” of developers, Layer2 teams, and retail investors.

But the question is—gardeners can cure a mid-life crisis, but they cannot fix the weather (global liquidity tightening, regulatory pressure). After all, ETH prices are influenced by macro environments far more than personnel changes.

Then I personally think that personnel changes are a “defensive strategy,” rather than a “savior.”

1. Limited short-term impact: ETH prices are constrained by market cycles and macro environments, and leadership changes are unlikely to directly reverse the downturn.

2. Long-term value anchors: If the new team can consolidate Ethereum's “north star values” (open source, permissionless, privacy) and promote innovations like account abstraction and cross-L2 coordination, ecological resilience will strengthen.

3. Risk points: Over-reliance on “community autonomy” may lead to inefficient decision-making, and if the foundation cannot improve communication (such as the recent hiring of a social media manager), it could exacerbate the trust crisis.

In times of change, ETH around 2000 is really cheap; it is our definition of value and consensus, just to awaken the sleeping leader (foundation, step up), currently in a value trough—let's see what happens in April's upgrades, brothers!