Lido Co-Founder Teases 'Second Foundation' for Ethereum Amid Community Backlash

Konstantin Lomashuk, the laminitis of the Lido staking protocol, has teased his volition to physique a "Second Foundation" to beforehand Ethereum's ecosystem.

Over the past respective days, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined plans for a large restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the nonprofit enactment liable for supporting Ethereum’s development. In a bid of posts connected X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which helium said would streamline decision-making processes and code inefficiencies.

The announcement has sparked criticism, with immoderate arguing that Buterin’s cardinal relation successful the restructuring process undermines Ethereum’s ethos of decentralization.

The Ethereum Foundation, however, has agelong been scrutinized for its ain centralizing power wrong the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past year, the enactment has faced mounting unit to specify a clearer imaginativeness for Ethereum’s aboriginal arsenic competing networks similar Solana marque strides.

Read more: Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin Goes connected Offense Amid Major Leadership Shake-up

The EF has besides been criticized for its "rollup-centric" roadmap, which prioritizes "layer-2" networks that alteration faster and cheaper transactions atop Ethereum. While these layer-2 rollups person boosted Ethereum’s throughput, they’ve besides drawn concerns astir imaginable trade-offs, specified arsenic diminished information guarantees and a notable dent successful Ethereum’s basal interest revenues.

Lomashuk, who has antecedently voiced concerns astir the Ethereum Foundation’s direction, hinted astatine the conception of a "Second Foundation" successful a December post connected X. "The thought of a 'Second Foundation' is much astir creating contention betwixt antithetic groups, giving the assemblage a choice," Lomashuk wrote. "EF is ace deep, and it’s astir intolerable for outsiders to lend without gathering semipermanent probe muscle. Without competition, we hazard losing the close path."

On Wednesday, Lomashuk published another X post sharing a recently established relationship for "Second Foundation."

Representatives for Lomashuk did not instantly respond to a petition for comment, but Martin Köppelmann, a salient Ethereum developer adjacent to Lomashuk, told CoinDesk that the "Second Foundation" connection is authentic.

"He is surely earnestly reasoning astir it," Köppelmann said. "The extremity of people is to marque it unfastened to anyone who subscribes to the aforesaid ideas - astir that Ethereum needs to standard amended and faster."

Lido, the protocol founded by Lomashuk, allows users to excavation their ETH to enactment successful Ethereum’s staking mechanism, which lets users "stake" (lock up) crypto with the web successful speech for interest. Stake correlates to powerfulness successful Ethereum’s governance system, making Lido a pivotal entity successful the ecosystem: Currently, Lido accounts for around 28% of Ethereum’s staked ETH, making it the network's single-largest validator.

In summation to Lido, Lomashuk co-founded P2P Validator, a institution providing infrastructure for Ethereum validators, and cyber.Fund, a task superior steadfast helium operates alongside different Lido co-founder. His increasing power raises questions astir the imaginable dynamics betwixt a "Second Foundation" and the existing Ethereum Foundation arsenic the web continues to evolve.