Headline: Former Ethereum Foundation researcher Francesco D’Amato joins Ethlabs as core devs migrate to independent research groups
Francesco D’Amato, a five-year researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), has left the Foundation to join Ethlabs, an independent nonprofit protocol research group founded by ex-Foundation researchers. D’Amato announced the move on X, saying he’s “joining the team to accelerate protocol work in the age of Ethereum adoption.”
During his tenure at EF Research, D’Amato worked across multiple protocol areas—maximal extractable value (MEV), consensus, data availability sampling, and execution-layer pricing. He called the decision to depart “hard,” but said the current period of change made it “right for a new beginning,” adding that he believes there is now “a credible shot” for core Ethereum research to progress outside the Foundation.
At Ethlabs, D’Amato will work with former EF colleagues to scale the organization’s protocol research, recruit new researchers, and contribute to Ethereum’s long-term technical roadmap. A primary focus for him will be reducing Ethereum’s transaction finality time: “helping Ethereum finalize much faster, as soon as possible,” he wrote.
Ethlabs launched in June as a nonprofit created by former Foundation researchers Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma. The group says its research covers settlement speed, network capacity, native asset issuance, cross-chain interoperability, and Ethereum’s monetary design. Ethlabs has framed its priorities around growing institutional activity on Ethereum—stablecoins, tokenized assets, investment products, and AI-driven commerce—while stressing that research decisions remain independent despite corporate backing. Funding and support have come from Ethereum co‑founder Joe Lubin, Bitmine, SharpLink, Anchorage, Octant, SNZ and others, with contributions managed through an external grants administrator.
D’Amato’s move is part of a broader shift of core Ethereum work into independent entities as the Foundation reshapes itself. Last month the Ethereum Foundation cut 54 positions—roughly 20% of staff—after reviewing its long-term roles, dissolved its Protocol Support team, and reorganized remaining efforts into divisions covering protocol development, users, community, access, and institutional activity.
The restructuring has already produced other spin‑outs: earlier this month former EF employees Mo Jalil, Oskar Thorén, and Aaryamann Challani launched EthSystems, a for-profit focused on confidential infrastructure for regulated financial institutions on Ethereum, backed by Bitmine, SharpLink and Lubin.
As more core researchers migrate to organizations like Ethlabs and EthSystems, the ecosystem is effectively diversifying where and how foundational Ethereum research and engineering are conducted—potentially accelerating protocol innovation outside the Foundation’s direct umbrella.
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