Excited to announce that
@ralexstokes and I are moving to the position of EF Research co-leads!
With this new role, I hope to accelerate pragmatic research for Ethereum and find more ways for us to involve the ecosystem in our many exciting projects.
What is EF Research?
Starting with a single original "Research team" at the Ethereum Foundation
@ethereumfndn, a group of 5 teams has come to be known as "EF Research". Today, these 5 teams are:
- Applied Research Group (ARG): Emphasis on getting research ideas into production, data engineering (the famous dotpics!
dotpics.info) and specifications, with a new bend towards applied cryptography
- Consensus R&D: The root from which more teams appeared, focusing among (many) other things on consensus, specifications of PoS Ethereum, and protocol-driven research
- Cryptography: A team involved in delivering cutting-edge, secure cryptography for use by the protocol. See also
crypto.ethereum.org
- Protocol Security: Wide range of expertise to keep Ethereum safe, from code reviews to advanced tooling, simulations and bug bounty programs. See also
github.com/ethereum/protocolโฆ
- Robust Incentives Group (RIG): A team concerned with the mechanisms and economics powering the Ethereum protocol. See also
rig.ethereum.org
What changes now?
- Our aim with Alex is to ensure that EFR is always at its best, internally and externally. Alex and I are starting a new team named "ResearchOps", focused on supporting the incredible work done by members of EFR, and more broadly on the delivery of research for Ethereum and its community.
- I am moving away from my role as team lead of RIG. I am so proud of what our team has accomplished, and RIG is not done yet. To continue this work,
@casparschwa is taking over as team lead, Iโm excited to see where he takes the group and its members!
What's next?
For me the direction is clear: Build a world computer for all to use. This means a censorship-resistant L1 at the efficiency frontier, and scale for L2s to onboard as many economies as we can imagine. Some big ticket items are of course SSF, DAS, EL R&D, FOCIL, ZK, PQโฆ you know the list :)
Research is part of this process, and researching in public for Ethereum and its community is close to my heart. Weโll be experimenting with different ideas, and we'll also keep our ear to the ground. My DMs are always open to chat, and feel free to AMA in the replies here.