Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido staking protocol, announced plans to build a “second foundation” to advance the Ethereum ecosystem.
Over the past few days, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, outlined his plans for a major restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization responsible for supporting the development of Ethereum. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which he said would streamline decision-making processes and address inefficiencies.
The announcement sparked criticism, with some saying Buterin’s central role in the restructuring process undermines Ethereum’s decentralization philosophy.
The Ethereum Foundation, however, has long been scrutinized for its own centralizing influence within the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past year, the organization has faced increasing pressure to define a clearer vision for Ethereum’s future, as competing networks like Solana move forward.
Read more: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin goes on the offensive amid major leadership shakeup
The EF has also been criticized for its “stacking-centric” roadmap, which prioritizes “layer 2” networks that enable faster and cheaper transactions on Ethereum. While these Layer 2 rollups have increased Ethereum’s throughput, they have also raised concerns about potential tradeoffs, such as decreased security guarantees and a notable drop in Ethereum base fee revenue.
Lomashuk, who has previously expressed concerns about the direction of the Ethereum Foundation, alluded to the concept of a “Second Foundation” in a December article on more about creating competition between different groups, giving the community a choice,” Lomashuk wrote. “EF is very deep, and it is almost impossible for outsiders to contribute to it without strengthening long-term research. Without competition, we risk losing the right path.”
On Wednesday, Lomashuk posted another X post sharing a newly created account for “Second Foundation.”
Lomashuk representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Martin Köppelmann, a prominent Ethereum developer close to Lomashuk, told CoinDesk that the “Second Foundation” proposal was genuine.
“He is certainly thinking about it seriously,” Köppelmann said. “The goal of course is to make it open to everyone who subscribes to the same ideas – that Ethereum needs to scale better and faster.”
Lido, the protocol founded by Lomashuk, allows users to pool their ETH to participate in Ethereum’s staking mechanism, which allows users to “stake” (lock) crypto with the network in exchange for interest. Stake correlates to power in Ethereum’s governance system, making Lido a central entity in the ecosystem: currently, Lido represents around 28% of the ETH staked by Ethereum, making it the largest validator of the network.
Besides Lido, Lomashuk co-founded P2P Validator, a company providing infrastructure for Ethereum validators, and cyber.Fund, a venture capital firm he operates alongside another Lido co-founder. Its growing influence raises questions about the potential dynamic between a “second foundation” and the existing Ethereum foundation as the network continues to evolve.
