Ethereum Foundation disbands five-year-old agreement support team

Key Highlights

Organizational structure adjustment, withdrawal of centralized operations department

training plan transformation, inclusion of revised framework

Network upgrade responsibilities reassigned to new departments

The Ethereum Foundation agreement support team was officially disbanded after five years of operation.

The team was responsible for coordinating critical network upgrades, developer conferences, and proposal advancement processes.

played an important role in guiding Ethereum through milestone transformation processes including the merger, Deng Village and Pectra.

Its scholarship program has cultivated a new generation of contributors to protocol advancement and client development.

Relevant responsibilities have now been assigned to various departments after the foundation\'s reorganization.

After five years of operation, the Ethereum Foundation officially closed its protocol support division, which was once a core hub for network upgrade coordination and developer education programs. The dissolution is part of a broader organizational change aimed at streamlining staff and reorganizing the foundation\'s operating blueprint into different functional levels. The infrastructure left behind by the protocol support team played a key role in Ethereum\'s migration to proof-of-stake and numerous subsequent network upgrades.

Organizational structure adjustment, abolition of centralized operating departments

The protocol support department was established in 2021 by the Ethereum Foundation to serve as a bridge of communication between client development teams, academic researchers, proposal authors and infrastructure operators. The department coordinates all core developer meetings and oversees technical initiatives before each scheduled network modification. In addition, the team is also responsible for promoting Ethereum improvement proposals through the discussion stage, experimental verification and actual deployment.

During its initial operations, the division facilitated upgrades in Berlin, London and Arrow Glacier. Later, as Ethereum neared the merger milestone, it managed the coordination of the Rayonim, Amfira and Kinzky test environments. This work synchronizes verification plans, contributor meetings and public communications throughout the proof-of-work network exit process.

After the merger, the protocol support team continues to facilitate the implementation of Shapella, Deng Village and Pectra while maintaining dialogue among the Ethereum distributed development community. The department monitors experimental network progress and prepares scheduled production deployments for contributors. This coordination minimizes the disconnect between strategic decision-making, validation efforts, and ecosystem preparation.

Training program transformed into a revised framework

Under the team\'s management, an original mentoring program evolved into the Ethereum Protocol Scholarship Program, designed to cultivate emerging core contributors. This project educates developers on protocol research, verification methods and client architecture in the Ethereum technology field. Participants have access to senior researchers, development organizations and specialized technical committees.

The team operates a tracking system called Forkcast that monitors proposal status, testnet deployments, upgrade readiness metrics, and production activation plans. Contributors rely on this platform to track changing schedules and technical specifications over multiple network modifications. The plan establishes a unified reference resource for complex upgrade information.

Members from the disbanded team announced the closure via social channels and encouraged interested organizations to contact available talent. Mario Havel will continue to serve at the Ethereum Foundation, but the broader team structure has been eliminated. Former department head William Morriss also confirmed that the reorganization ended his cooperation with the foundation.

Network upgrade responsibilities reassigned to new departments

On June 23, the foundation disclosed its latest round of layoffs, cutting 54 positions. Along with the layoffs, internal operations were reorganized into several departments including protocols, access, users, communities and institutions. These adjustments terminated multiple centralized departments and reallocated responsibilities into a revised structure.

The newly established protocol layer will take over some of the previous upgrade management and coordination functions of the protocol support department. Other teams will assume responsibilities such as developer education, community participation and assistance with Ethereum improvement proposals. Despite this, the foundation has not provided detailed information on the future allocation of these specific functions.

The closure of the protocol support department marks the end of an era that had guided Ethereum to achieve many transformative technological achievements. The team\'s contributions include network strategic planning, developer synchronization, verification assistance, scholarship management, and public upgrade documentation. The reorganized organization of Ethereum will continue to assume these responsibilities without the division\'s unified operating identity.