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Two more Ethereum Foundation researchers — Carl Beek and Julian Ma — announced their resignations on Monday, deepening a months-long wave of senior departures from the organization that stewards the Ethereum protocol.
Beek, a seven-year veteran best known for his work on the Beacon Chain that underpinned Ethereum's 2020 transition to proof-of-stake, said his last day will be May 29. Ma, who spent roughly four years on the team, co-authored FOCIL (EIP-7805), a proposal aimed at boosting Ethereum's censorship resistance, and led the rollout of the Fast Confirmation Rule, which cut bridging time between Layer 2 networks and mainnet to 13 seconds.
Their exits land alongside a string of other high-profile resignations: co-executive director Tomasz K. Stańczak stepped down in February less than a year into the role, Josh Stark resigned in March after seven years, and Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, and Trent Van Epps — who helped build the Protocol Guild funding mechanism — have all left the Protocol team. Former Protocol co-lead Alex Stokes announced a sabbatical earlier this month. Last June, long-time Geth creator Péter Szilágyi departed after roughly a decade.
Why it matters
The Ethereum Foundation spent 2025 reshuffling leadership — reducing former Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi's influence by installing more technical co-leads, and having Vitalik Buterin take a more visible role in communicating a roadmap that recommits to scaling the base layer after pulling back from the so-called rollup-centric strategy. The current exit wave lands on top of that restructuring, and several of the people leaving are exactly the technical leads the reshuffle was meant to elevate.
The departures also follow a controversial period inside the EF: the organization reportedly asked employees to sign a loyalty pledge after publishing a mandate centered on so-called CROPs values — Censorship resistance, Open source, Privacy, and Security — language that drew community backlash over its perceived references to the Milady online community. The exits read as a stress test of whether the EF can hold onto the protocol-level talent that its credibility depends on.
Frequently asked questions
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Who are the two researchers who just resigned from the Ethereum Foundation?
Carl Beek, a seven-year veteran known for his work on the Beacon Chain that underpinned Ethereum's 2020 transition to proof-of-stake, and Julian Ma, who co-authored FOCIL (EIP-7805) for censorship resistance and led the Fast Confirmation Rule rollout.
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How many senior people have left the EF in recent months?
At least eight senior figures have departed or stepped back since last June, including Geth creator Péter Szilágyi, co-executive director Tomasz K. Stańczak, Josh Stark, Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps, plus Alex Stokes on sabbatical and now Beek and Ma.
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Why does this wave of EF resignations matter for Ethereum?
The people leaving built and maintained core protocol infrastructure — Beacon Chain, Geth, FOCIL, Fast Confirmation Rule, and the Protocol Guild — that underpins $ETH's security, L2 throughput, and developer funding. A sustained drain of that expertise is an operational risk to the roadmap.
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What was the EF reshuffle in 2025 and how does it connect to these exits?
The EF restructured leadership last year, reducing former Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi's influence with more technical co-leads and giving Vitalik Buterin a more visible roadmap role. The current exit wave lands on top of that restructuring and includes people the reshuffle was meant to elevate.
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What is the CROPs mandate and why is it controversial?
CROPs — Censorship resistance, Open source, Privacy, and Security — is the EF's stated value framework, introduced alongside a reported employee loyalty pledge. While the values are broadly supported, the mandate's perceived references to the Milady online community drew community backlash.
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