A former Ethereum Foundation contributor has raised alarms about a possible shortfall in support for the network’s foundational development efforts, warning that it could materialize within the next three to nine months. Trent Van Epps, who spent five years at the Foundation until April 2026 coordinating core protocol activities and related funding initiatives, outlined these concerns in a detailed essay published on June 18, 2026.
Van Epps described the situation as a “slow-burning funding crisis” rather than an abrupt cliff.
He pointed to two primary pressures: the recent conclusion of a multi-year client support program and ongoing adjustments to the Foundation’s treasury management strategy.
The Client Incentive Program, which had channeled resources to teams maintaining Ethereum’s execution and consensus clients over four years, wrapped up in April 2026 without a designated successor mechanism in place.
At the same time, the Foundation has been reducing its annual spending rate.
A treasury plan announced in 2025 set a glide path toward lowering outflows from roughly 15 percent of assets per year down to a more sustainable 5 percent endowment-style baseline by 2030.
This shift aims to preserve long-term solvency after years of using treasury holdings to bootstrap the broader ecosystem.
Van Epps estimated that maintaining adequate capacity across more than ten client teams, research groups, and coordination roles requires consistent annual funding in the range of $30 million.
He noted that current and near-term sources for this level of support appear increasingly limited, based on conversations across the core development community.
Without steady resources, he warned of risks including the departure of experienced contributors who hold deep institutional knowledge, delays in tackling complex challenges such as scalability improvements and future-proofing measures, and potential impacts on the network’s track record of reliability.
The former contributor situated the warning within the Foundation’s long-standing “subtraction” philosophy.
This approach deliberately seeks to limit organizational growth inside the Foundation itself and instead encourage value creation and responsibility across the wider Ethereum ecosystem.
While intended to promote decentralization and maturity, Van Epps argued that executing this transition effectively requires proactive planning for new stewardship structures.
He referenced comments from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who has noted that the Foundation’s original scope—focused on early-stage software development through major upgrades—was largely completed years ago and was never designed as a permanent central authority.
Van Epps called for renewed discussion around updated social, political, and economic arrangements among stakeholders to support ongoing protocol maintenance through more scalable and neutral funding channels.
The concerns come amid reports of staff transitions at the Ethereum Foundation and broader debates about sustainable resourcing for public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem. Van Epps emphasized that underinvestment in continuity could prove costly to reverse if symptoms appear 12–18 months from now, and he urged collective attention to building durable mechanisms that match the project’s long-term goals and objectives.