As the controversy wandered around the Ethereum Foundation (EF) this winter, one of Ethereum’s most respected architects quietly planned its next move. Danny Ryan -a major vision behind Ethereum upgrading, “The Merge” –Left the EF in September But it took a few months to enter the organization to reunite the organization as its new leader.
“I’m talking to Vitalik (Baterin) and others that it is potentially back to help run the Ethereum Foundation,” Ryan said in a interview with CoinDesk. But while the non-profit behind the second largest blockchain underwent a dramatic leadership reshuffle, Ryan’s trajectory was unexpectedly moved to another place-to bring Ethereum to Wall Street.
Changes to the Ethereum Foundation have come amid the growing chaos in the community. Critics blame the foundation for their understanding that Ethereum is losing momentum with Ascendant rivals like Solana. Reshuffling includes the move of Aya Miyaguchi, the executive director of the foundation since 2018, in the role of the President.
Instead of Ryan’s former position of Miyaguchi, the foundation’s daily leadership was transferred to Hsiao-Wei Wang, an EF researcher, and Tomasz Stańczak, the founder of Ethereum’s Nethermind’s client client software.
The Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, is the main organization that supports the development of the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. It smokes a treasury of Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) tokens, which it distributes through ecosystem projects. Staff is also a team of developers and researchers who play an important role in coordinating updates and shaping chain roadmaps.
In January, as the EF leadership leadership was conducted, Ryan “ended the joint separation of the ways” with Blerin and the foundation, he said. “Soon, I introduced Vivek (Raman),” one of the founders of Etherealize, a new firm aimed at bringing Ether (ETH) products to Wall Street. In March, Ryan announced that he would join Etherealize as a co-founder.
Ryan said he made the move because he believed that Ethereum was at a point of technological reflection: “Ethereum is bigger than the EF. It’s not just some EF changes that will make or break the Ethereum big.”
According to Ryan, what ecosystems now needs more is to get its technology into the hands of real users. “The only reason that things are probably more existent now than the past times is that the world is really ready to adopt these systems,” Ryan said. “It exists that Ethereum – a truly open, decentralized, unauthorized platform – the one adopted.”
From Web3 to Wall Street
In Etherealize, Ryan aims to connect Ethereum’s technical ecosystem with institutional finance. The company develops financial products that will make Ethereum more accessible to traditional investors while maintaining basic blockchain values.
As an EF researcher, Ryan played a key role Mapping Ethereum’s ambitious upgrade from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, Known as combine. He believes that his close relationship with one of the most influential organizations in the Ethereum space will benefit his new Etherealize work.
“I’m on board, we get the kind of bi -direction bridge. I have a deep Ethereum context – I helped develop the protocol,” Ryan said. “I know all the people who work here. I know the challenges at hand and understand how things can open the next few years. And so I can serve as a bridge from Ethereum back to the real world.”
As for Ryan’s role, in particular, his responsibilities are not fully defined: “I love Etherealize to take a command to make some open (research and development), and being a player in layer-1 or layer-2 or application layer R&D. But we are still the kind of understanding of the land lay there.”
Industry observers note that Ryan’s move came to an important moment for both Ethereum and institutional crypto adoption. Through a new crypto regulation environment under US president Donald Trump, traditional financial companies – in the United States, especially – expect to be a more comfortable adoption of blockchain technology. Ryan hopes that his technical Bona fides will help these integrations meet Wall Street’s strict standards without compromising the major crypto ideals.
“We plan to bring the whole world to Ethereum as much as we can, and having a deep technical background and understanding about Ethereum from a very basic way will help us to do that,” Ryan said.
Looking forward to the Ethereum Foundation
When asked about the timing of his removal from the EF in the middle of the growing criticism of the organization, Ryan offered a measured view. “Many of what we see are dynamics in the market, regardless of the basic value, painting people’s views on things, and sometimes they are looking for someone to blame or put on a finger,” he explained, referring to the volatility of the ETH price that sometimes colored public sentiment about the project.
Ryan remains optimistic about the changes that come to the foundation he previously considered leading. “I enjoy some new blood,” he said. “I’ve known Aya since January 2018; we’ve worked closely together for years. I told the public that I admire her leadership, and I think she made a lot of really important calls on how to operate the EF.”
He added that he was “excited for two leaders” raised to replace Miyaguchi. “They have very technical backgrounds and an in -depth understanding of Ethereum, both positive and negative in terms of protocol construction.”
Read more: Ethereum’s new cheerleader on Wall Street: A Q&A with Vivek Raman
