Two more Ethereum Foundation researchers resign

Carl Beek and Julian Ma announced their resignations from the Ethereum Foundation on Monday. Beek will leave on Friday, May 29, after seven years with the organization. Ma is departing after about four years and did not give a final date.

Beek is known for his work on the Beacon Chain and the network’s transition to proof-of-stake in 2020. He wrote on X thanking colleagues and the community, adding that he and his wife welcomed a one-year-old last month: “To every researcher, core dev, EFer, and community member: thank you.”

Ma focused on mechanism design, cryptoeconomics and protocol scaling at the foundation. He highlighted co-authoring FOCIL (EIP-7805), a proposal intended to increase censorship resistance, and leading the rollout of the Fast Confirmation Rule, which cut bridging time between Layer 2 networks and the Ethereum mainnet to about 13 seconds.

Their resignations follow several other recent exits. Tomasz K. Stańczak stepped down as co-executive director in February, less than a year into the role. Josh Stark left in March after seven years. Protocol team members including Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko have departed. Trent Van Epps moved on as the Protocol Guild became an independent funding body for core developers, and Alex Stokes announced a sabbatical earlier this month. Péter Szilágyi left in June after about a decade working on the Geth client.

The foundation announced a restructuring in 2025 intended to address community concerns about execution, scaling and support for the wider ecosystem. The changes reduced the influence of former executive director Aya Miyaguchi and introduced more technical co-leads. Founder Vitalik Buterin has taken a more visible role outlining roadmap priorities, with a renewed emphasis on scaling the Ethereum base layer and less focus on a rollup-centric approach.

The organization also published a mandate emphasizing CROPs values — Censorship resistance, Open source, Privacy and Security — and reportedly asked employees to sign a loyalty pledge tied to that mandate. Some community members raised concerns about apparent references in the mandate to the Milady online community.

Beek's last day is May 29. Ma did not specify a final date. The resignations increase turnover as the foundation implements its restructuring and addresses community questions about priorities and governance.