Josh Stark, a key researcher and project manager at the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organization that stewards development of the Ethereum ecosystem, said Thursday that he is departing the organization after five years.
Stark did not provide a specific reason for his departure and said in a post on X that he has “no plans for the future.” Instead, he will take some personal time to focus on family and friends. He said:
“The Ethereum ecosystem has reliably done things the world told us were impossible. It is easy to forget how much real fear and doubt there was that Ethereum would never launch, that decentralized finance (DeFi) would never work, or that Proof of Stake would never ship.”
He is one of four people listed as “Management” on an organizational chart which shows nearly all of the Foundation’s staff reporting in. Cointelegraph reached out to Stark about his departure, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The departure of Stark from the Ethereum Foundation represents the most high-profile exit from the organization since Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping leadership changes and a new direction for the Foundation in 2025. A day earlier, another Foundation contributor, Trent Van Epps, announced that he resigned last week.
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The Ethereum Foundation got a shakeup in 2025
In January 2025, co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping changes to the Ethereum Foundation in response to growing criticism from the Ethereum community over the long-term direction of the ecosystem.
Bringing in “fresh” talent to the organization, greater decentralization and developing the protocol for faster transaction throughput and increased transaction speeds were among some of the goals Buterin listed for the changes.
However, the revamped Ethereum Foundation would not engage in ideological disputes, lobby US lawmakers in Washington or represent “vested interests,” Buterin added.
“These things aren’t what EF does, and this isn’t going to change. People seeking a different vision are welcome to start their own orgs,” he said.
The Ethereum Foundation officially announced new leadership in March 2025, adding Hsiao-Wei Wang, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, and Tomasz Stańczak, CEO of Nethermind, an Ethereum execution client, as co-directors of the organization.
Stańczak stepped down from his role in February 2026, while Wang remains a member of the Ethereum Foundation’s management board, according to its organizational chart.
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