The Ethereum Foundation has dissolved its Protocol Support team, a key group that coordinated developer meetings, network upgrades and fellowship programs for five years. The move is part of a broader restructuring that recently cut about 20% of the nonprofit's workforce, with several team members losing their roles.
Team closure confirmed on X
The Protocol Support account confirmed the team's closure on X, inviting Ethereum organizations seeking experienced developers to contact former members. Mario Havel, who worked with Protocol Support for more than five years, said he remains at the Ethereum Foundation but that the rest of his team had been dissolved. "I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what's most needed in the future," Havel wrote. "However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part of 5+ years, has been dissolved." He described the closure as the "bitter end" of a team that had supported Ethereum's core development process through several forms and leadership changes.
Key programs and responsibilities
Protocol Support organized All Core Developers meetings, where client teams and researchers discuss proposed upgrades. It also supported breakout calls, tracked network fork readiness and helped contributors understand Ethereum's technical roadmap. The team maintained Forkcast, a public platform that tracks Ethereum upgrades, proposed EIPs, testnet launches and mainnet activation plans. Former team lead William Morriss said the restructuring had ended his Ethereum Foundation role. Protocol Support also ran the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship, a program that trained developers seeking to contribute to Ethereum's core protocol. Havel said he and former colleague Josh Davis built the fellowship over four years, bringing dozens of new developers into the core development community. The Foundation had opened applications for the seventh cohort in April, but it remains unclear whether the current cohort will continue under another team.
Broader restructuring and future uncertainty
The team's dissolution follows the Ethereum Foundation's new organizational structure, announced on June 23, which cut 54 positions — roughly 20% of its workforce — after a months-long review. The Foundation reorganized its work into five main areas: protocol, access, user, community and institutional layers. Affected workers received severance, career transition support and grants. The Foundation said the changes were necessary to focus resources on work it must perform over the coming years. This closure follows earlier changes to Ethereum's research and development structure, including a reduction of the Protocol Research and Development team in 2025.
Core protocol work continues
The new protocol cluster remains responsible for Ethereum's underlying technology, including shipping upgrades safely, reducing technical complexity and improving privacy, security and censorship resistance. Developers are also working on the Glamsterdam upgrade, which includes changes to block construction, data access and network performance. However, the Foundation has not publicly detailed where every Protocol Support responsibility will move, leaving the future management of developer meetings, Forkcast, fellowship programs and EIP support unclear. While protocol development does not depend on one Foundation team — as client developers, researchers and independent contributors work across several organizations — Protocol Support provided coordination services that connected many of those groups during network upgrades.