Former core member of the Ethereum Foundation: Ethereum may face a protocol funding crisis in the next 3 to 9 months

Trent Van Epps, the former core development coordinator of the Ethereum Foundation, stated that as the foundation continues to advance its "Subtraction governance" strategy, the size of the treasury gradually shrinks, and the four-year Client Incentive Program (CIP) expires this April, the Ethereum core development ecosystem may face a slowly brewing funding crisis in the next 3 to 9 months.

Trent pointed out that maintaining the normal operation of over 10 Ethereum client teams, research institutions, and coordinating organizations requires approximately $30 million in funding support each year. If funding continues to be insufficient, it may lead to the loss of key developers, a slowdown in protocol upgrades, and weaken Ethereum's long-term competitiveness in areas such as scalability, quantum computing defense, and network maintenance. The Ethereum Foundation is not designed to be a permanent governor, and new institutions will need to take on the responsibilities of protocol development over the next decade. As the foundation's influence gradually declines, the Ethereum ecosystem urgently needs to establish new funding allocation mechanisms, governance frameworks, and institutional inheritance systems to ensure the long-term sustainable development of the protocol.