The Ethereum Foundation is pausing its open funding program, which was originally launched in 2018. The so-called Ecosystem Support Program has awarded more than $3 million in grants alone to more than 100 projects, according to Friday's announcement.
“Our mission is to strengthen Ethereum’s foundation and support future builders in areas such as developer tools, research, community building, infrastructure, and open standards,” the foundation wrote in a blog post signed by the Ecosystem Support Initiative.
"As a team with a lean, broad-based open grant program, the high volume of applications has consumed much of our time and resources, resulting in limited ability to pursue new strategic opportunities," Friday's blog post reads.
Much of the money EF supports through grants is used to find technical and scalability problems in the world's most widely used chains, including development tools like Commit-Boost, an analysis program called BundleBear, and cutting-edge cryptographic research like ZK Playbook.
The program also funds the semi-official Ethereum Cypherpunks Conference, which brings together Ethereum cultural, academic, and technical leaders dedicated to spreading the word about Ethereum and the foundation.
While it’s difficult to determine the value of the grants EF has given out over the years — largely due to differences in naming conventions such as community outreach, education, and technology research — a recent report showed that in 2023, EF’s largest expenditure was for “new institutions,” totaling $47.4 million, compared with $28.6 million in 2022.
An updated financial report shows the organization intends to spend about 15% of state coffers, while also planning to maintain a statutory spending buffer of 2.5 years before gradually reducing the spending rate until it reaches a sustainable level of about 5% per year.
Overall, the changes to the grant program appear to be an important part of the Ethereum Foundation’s efforts to streamline operations and become a more focused organization. Perhaps most notably, the organization hired co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak to lead the organization.
Over the next few months, Stańczak and Hsiao-Wei will focus on scaling the Ethereum mainnet and blobs, the transaction storage system, and driving UX improvements, including Layer 2 interoperability and application layers.
"We remain deeply committed to supporting the Ethereum ecosystem and the public goods upon which it depends. While these changes mark a new chapter for ESP, we are confident in the opportunities ahead to better support the exceptional builders, researchers, and contributors who drive Ethereum forward," the blog added.