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Ethereum is at a critical moment, vigorously expanding and restructuring its ecological development efforts, focusing on four key areas: ecosystem acceleration, ecosystem amplification, ecosystem support, and long-term ecosystem smoothness.
As stated in the foundation's recent vision statement, we have two core goals: first, to maximize the number of Ethereum users, whether directly or indirectly, while ensuring that users benefit from the core values of Ethereum; second, to maximize the resilience of Ethereum's technology and social infrastructure.
Enhance the resilience of technical and social infrastructure: Ensure that Ethereum can meet scaling challenges on both technical and social levels, maintaining resilience and being people-centered.
To achieve these goals, the EF plans to reorganize and expand the EcoDev team, focusing on four key areas:
🔹Ecosystem acceleration: Accelerate the practical application of Ethereum through corporate relationships, developer support, application implementation, and founder support.
🔹Ecosystem amplification: Enhance Ethereum's influence and educational outreach through digital studios (formerly the ethereum.org team), strategic activities, and the 'Ethereum Everywhere' initiative.
🔹Ecological support: Strengthen support for ecological projects through optimizing funding programs (ESP/Grant Support) and strategic funding.
🔹Long-term ecological unlocking: Addressing structural and long-term obstacles, such as academic support, policy coordination, etc.
Furthermore, the EF has introduced the EcoDev automation team, utilizing AI and intelligent tools to enhance internal efficiency and continue supporting major events such as Devcon and Devconnect. This strategy from the Ethereum Foundation is not only a response to current trends in the blockchain industry but also points the way for Ethereum's development in the coming years.
1) Ecosystem acceleration and Rollup standardization: Ethereum is at a critical stage of transitioning from technology-driven to application-driven 🔻
The ecological acceleration strategy, especially in collaboration with Layer 2 solutions, echoes discussions about the need for Rollup standardization in X posts. L2 is crucial for improving transaction speed and reducing costs, but a fragmented L2 ecosystem may lead to inconsistent developer experiences and user fragmentation.
The EF can promote the standardization and interoperability of L2 by supporting developers, application teams, and enterprises, thereby lowering entry barriers and attracting more traditional companies (such as Sharplink Gaming and Bit Digital, which hold significant amounts of ETH) into the Ethereum ecosystem.
Ethereum needs to balance technological innovation with ecological integration. The standardization of Rollups may restrict certain innovation pathways in the short term, but in the long run, it can enhance Ethereum's competitive edge, especially in the face of challenges from high-performance public chains like Solana. Moreover, the introduction of the EcoDev automation team indicates that the EF is leveraging AI to optimize operations, which may become a trend in the blockchain industry, with more AI-driven on-chain tools expected in the future.
2) People-centered ecological resilience: The EF emphasizes 'people-centered' ecological development 🔻
This is an important yet often overlooked perspective in the blockchain industry. Ethereum is not just a technological platform but a global social experiment involving multiple stakeholders, including developers, users, enterprises, and governments.
Ethereum's social resilience faces multiple challenges. For example, the SlowMist report indicates that in the first half of 2025, Ethereum's DeFi platforms lost approximately $470 million due to security vulnerabilities related to the EIP-7702 wallet delegation feature. This suggests that technological advancements (such as the Pectra upgrade) may introduce new social engineering risks.
The EF needs to raise user security awareness through education and policy coordination while promoting stronger anti-phishing tools and user-friendly wallet designs. Additionally, the diversity of Ethereum's global community drives ecological development but requires more flexible localization strategies to address regulatory and cultural differences in different regions.
3) Funding and public goods investment: The EF's funding program 🔻
In the first quarter of 2025, the EF distributed over $32 million in funding to 101 projects, covering areas such as education, developer experience, cryptography, and zero-knowledge proofs.
This indicates that the EF is shaping Ethereum's ecological direction through economic incentives, prioritizing support for projects with long-term value.
Optimizing the funding mechanism may further amplify Ethereum's ecological effects. However, transparency and fairness in funding distribution will be key challenges. The EF needs to ensure that resources are not overly concentrated in a few large projects or regions but benefit the global community of small and medium-sized developers.
4) Ethereum's global positioning: Ethereum's EcoDev strategy 🔻
Devconnect Argentina 2025 and Ethereum World’s Fair indicate that the EF is building Ethereum's image as a 'world computer' through localized activities and global narratives. This positioning may allow Ethereum to dominate areas such as stablecoins, DeFi, decentralized identity, and prediction markets.
The future success of Ethereum relies not only on technological advancements but also on its ability to establish trust and coordination mechanisms globally. The EF's EcoDev strategy, through corporate cooperation, community support, and long-term unlocking, aims to position Ethereum as a platform that is both technologically advanced and socially inclusive. However, in the face of regulatory pressure (such as the U.S. Treasury's regulatory disputes over DeFi) and the rise of competitive chains, Ethereum needs to engage more actively in global policy dialogues to ensure that its decentralized values are not undermined.
📍Conclusion:
The Ethereum Foundation's EcoDev new strategy is a comprehensive and forward-looking plan aimed at transforming Ethereum from a technical testing ground to a global application platform through technological integration, social empowerment, and economic incentives.
In the future, Ethereum needs to continue to work on the following areas.
🔹Technology: Promote the on-chain application of L2 standardization and AI tools to enhance performance and developer experience.
🔹Society: Enhance user trust through education and localization activities to address security and regulatory challenges.
🔹Economy: Optimize funding mechanisms, balancing institutional investment with community-driven innovation.
If Ethereum can successfully execute this strategy, it can not only consolidate its leading position in the blockchain field but also become a bridge connecting the traditional world with Web3, providing decentralized value and opportunities for global users. However, this requires the EF to maintain high coordination at the technical, social, and economic levels while responding to a rapidly changing external environment.