The Ethereum Foundation has seen five senior contributors leave full-time roles between mid-February and mid-May 2026, including four who exited within a four-week span in April and May. The departures — from board co-steward Josh Stark to longtime researcher Trent Van Epps — come just weeks after the foundation published a 38-page Mandate document that redefines its mission and controversially adopts a satirical internet license.
A four-week exodus
Josh Stark, who served as a board co-steward for roughly seven years and co-chaired the Trillion Dollar Security initiative, announced his exit on April 16. He said he needed to “reset and spend time with family” and has no immediate plans. The same week, Van Epps left after publicly criticizing the foundation's leadership for associating with the Milady NFT collection, calling it “baffling and sad.” Two other senior researchers — Frédéric Monnot and Tim Beiko — also left full-time roles in that window, though neither gave public statements at the time.
Tomasz Stańczak stepped down as co-Executive Director on February 13 after just 11 months in the position. Bastian Aue replaced him as interim co-ED. Separately, Dankrad Feist had already transitioned to a part-time EF advisor role in October 2025 while joining Tempo, a Stripe- and Paradigm-backed L1 project, as an advisor — the first time a senior EF researcher moved to a competing blockchain.
Inside the Mandate
The Mandate document, released March 13, lays out four core principles — censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security — and positions the EF as a “protocol steward.” It also formally adopts the “Source Seppuku License,” a pre-existing satirical license from internet subculture. The document does not include the so-called “walkaway test” — the idea that Ethereum should function if the Foundation vanished — though that concept has been paraphrased in secondary coverage.
Van Epps' criticism of the Milady association has been widely circulated since his departure, putting the foundation's cultural alignment under scrutiny. The Mandate doesn't address that incident directly, but it does try to clarify the EF's role in a network that's increasingly decentralized — and increasingly tested by its own talent drain.
Leadership in transition
With Stark, Van Epps, Monnot, and Beiko all gone within weeks, Aue now holds the interim co-ED role and the foundation's remaining leadership faces a credibility test. Feist's move to Tempo raises hard questions about how the EF retains top talent when competing chains offer advisor positions and full-time roles. The Mandate may have been meant to steady the ship, but the timing — released just as the exodus began — suggests the foundation is still figuring out its identity.
What's next? Aue will likely need to fill the co-ED slot permanently. And the community will watch closely to see if any of the departed contributors surface at other L1 projects. The Mandate sets out principles, but it doesn't stop people from walking out the door.
