Key Point One: What are the potential explosive applications and exploratory application areas in the Ethereum ecosystem?
When asked about which application areas in the Ethereum ecosystem may see an explosion and which directions are still in exploration, Wang Xiaowei replied: 'Personally, I find aspects related to identity and SocialFi quite interesting. For example, in the Farcaster ecosystem, there is a small program that allows users to see games their friends are playing and supports quick sharing. Although there is still some time before an explosion, it is relatively easier to penetrate ordinary users' daily lives and quickly find their user base. As for large projects, they still tend to lean towards financial-related products, such as innovations in DeFi; additionally, RWA should also belong to the application category, and its future development is worth looking forward to.'
Overall, Wang Xiaowei's responses seem moderate, indicating that EF does not have particularly clear support plans or promotion ideas for the future development of the application layer in the Ethereum ecosystem, which is the biggest shortcoming of the Ethereum ecosystem compared to the business application development logic of the Solana ecosystem.
Key Point Two: What is the internal organizational structure of EF?
Regarding EF's organizational structure, Wang Xiaowei answered: 'The general structure of EF includes: first, the Board of Directors, then the Management Team, and below that, there are three business clusters, which are non-strictly defined departments.'
The first department is the Operation department, including Finance, HR, and Legal, which are necessary for the daily operations of a company or foundation.
The second department is the Development department, which mainly focuses on Protocol R&D after some recent major spin-offs; the Research Team also falls under this development department.
The third part is the Eco Dev (Ecological Development) department, which is related to ecological development. This part may include departments that issue grants, such as ESP and Next Billion Fellowship.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that according to the LinkedIn interface, the number of employees under the EF organization is 281, making it a bona fide medium-sized organization.
In response to the community's concern about 'whether EF lacks its own marketing department,' Wang Xiaowei also responded directly: 'As Josh Stark said, Ethereum doesn’t have a BD team; Ethereum has one hundred BD teams. Other applications, whether Layer 2 or some Dapps, have their own BD teams, which are also like our BD team. We do not regard Ethereum as a brand of our own. For example, like Twitter, we have recently made some account transitions on Twitter. Since the beginning of this year, there is now an Ethereum account and an Ethereum Foundation account. I think separating them is quite good because previously when we used the Ethereum account to post something, it seemed that everyone thought this represented the foundation's meaning, which was very limiting. Now, using this account to do BD-like things and help the community understand what major events are happening, I think this separation is great; both accounts can be utilized effectively.'
Key Point Three: What are the possible future funding flows of EF?
Regarding the community's long-standing concern about 'EF's funding operation model and potential funding input channels,' Wang Xiaowei responded: 'This year, the foundation has started to actively participate in DeFi. At the beginning of February, there was a wave of deployments, and we started trying ETH DeFi Lending, with a second phase also in planning. We are assessing whether to increase our investment in Lending or explore more creative uses of ETH assets.'
The second larger area is Staking. We are also exploring different Staking Options, while considering whether EF's participation in Staking can bring positive benefits.
The third point is still in the exploration stage, which is Tokenization, for example, participating in some RWA. Our participation mainly involves conservative funds or funds that are favorable to L1.
In simple terms, perhaps due to Vitalik and EF members' indifference towards the speculative hype of DeFi, EF's sources of revenue are still relatively limited. However, the consistently poor market price of ETH and the complaints from the community have propelled EF to take a new step and attempt more diversified operations to generate income.
Key Point Four: What are the reasons behind EF's previous sell-off operations?
Simply put, for survival.
In response to the community's concern about 'selling 100 ETH in small amounts,' Wang Xiaowei replied, 'For us, it is a necessity to sell because we currently have two to three hundred people in the foundation, and about 75% of our expenditures are in fiat currency, while 25% are in crypto.'
So the first point is that the foundation needs to operate, which requires asset rebalancing.
The second point is that our community may not be very clear about this need, and we may strengthen our communication.
One more thing to clarify is that we do not sell coins at high points; often people say we sell at high points, but in fact, we have sold at low points many times. When prices were low, people did not amplify this; we haven't put much design into this.
In response to the community's mention of the suggestion that 'EF may consider selling coins through a more covert or OTC method,' Wang Xiaowei also responded directly: 'Our main Treasury is actually very open and transparent, so while it may be feasible to do this in the short term, the changes in the main Treasury are something everyone can see.'
Under the premise of adhering to EF's mission of decentralization and transparency, they believe that similar ETH sell-off actions are undoubtedly a better choice.
Key Point Five: Will EF gradually fade away with the development of the community?
Some speculate that EF may gradually fade away or dissolve after fulfilling certain missions or phases, allowing the community to drive Ethereum's operation. If that day really comes, how do you envision the Ethereum community operating?
In response to this question, Wang Xiaowei provided her insights from the position of Executive Director of EF. She mentioned: 'Firstly, for the foundation, this year (2025) is particularly important. We have invested a significant budget into the entire organizational transformation. Perhaps next year, if the foundation discovers that there are other entities in the community that can replace the foundation's role, we can operate in a conservative and contracted state.'
Interestingly, we need to adjust our strategy each year, as the themes the foundation focuses on may differ annually. Perhaps when the foundation focuses on Protocol, its presence will be stronger. Therefore, in the future, if the focus shifts to application layers or Wallets, we may not need such a strong presence, so this presence changes every year.
Personally, I hope the foundation can constantly think about how to enable others to do what we are doing today. In the future, which tasks can only be done by us, perhaps we will continue to do those.
For example, the Coordination part heavily relies on various future factors and support from the community. If the community can perform well, the foundation can shift towards more complex or less monitored issues.
In summary, the future of EF is not only in the hands of EF members but also depends on the development and future direction of the Ethereum ecosystem and community.
