The Ethereum Foundation has revealed a comprehensive overview of its supported research and development initiatives, spanning critical areas from community building and educational outreach to cutting-edge cryptography and protocol enhancements. This extensive portfolio underscores a strategic commitment to fostering a robust, secure, and accessible decentralized future, with projects actively underway across multiple continents and disciplines. The initiatives highlight a concerted effort to empower developers, advance foundational research, and expand the global reach of Ethereum technology.
Community & Education: Cultivating Global Engagement and Onboarding New Builders
A significant portion of the Ethereum Foundation’s current focus lies in cultivating a vibrant and inclusive global community, coupled with robust educational programs designed to onboard new participants. These efforts aim to democratize access to blockchain technology and empower individuals and communities worldwide.
Regional Hubs and Hackathons Ignite Innovation:
In Latin America, a wave of community-led events and initiatives is actively working to bring the region "onchain." Destino Devconnect is a prime example, focusing on grant rounds to support these grassroots efforts. Building on this momentum, the Local Meetups LATAM Grant Round, a collaboration with the Localism Fund, is designed to sustain post-Devconnect engagement. This initiative empowers local Ethereum communities to host consistent, educational, and inclusive monthly meetups for an entire year, fostering ongoing knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Brazil is set to host the ETH Latam Hackathon Brasil 2025 in São Paulo, organized by ETHSamba. This event prioritizes real-world Ethereum applications and aims to onboard new builders into the ecosystem. The hackathon’s focus on practical implementation suggests a move towards tangible solutions that address existing challenges within the region.
Argentina is emerging as a significant hub for decentralized innovation. Funding the Commons: Buenos Aires 2025, a conference in Buenos Aires, is dedicated to exploring RealFi – financial infrastructure designed for real-world coordination, access, and public goods funding. This aligns with a growing trend of leveraging blockchain for social impact and sustainable development. Complementing this, Invisible Garden, a developer pop-up city also organized in Buenos Aires, concentrates on key areas like Ethereum, Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), AI, and cybersecurity. This multifaceted approach aims to create an immersive environment for developers to collaborate and innovate.
Global Reach Through Education and Collaboration:
Beyond Latin America, the Foundation is supporting initiatives that foster global knowledge exchange and skill development. Cal Hacks 12.0, a collegiate hackathon at the University of California, Berkeley, explored themes such as AI and Web3, demonstrating the intersection of emerging technologies.
In Asia, the High Assurance Crypto Software (HACS) Workshop 2026 will take place in Taipei, Taiwan. This workshop is crucial for bringing together cryptographers, cryptographic software engineers, and formal verification experts to enhance the security and correctness of real-world cryptographic software. Such initiatives are vital for building trust and reliability in the underlying technologies.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Research Center for Blockchain Technology is actively collaborating on and supporting a range of academic activities. This includes scholarships for their MSc in Blockchain Technology program, the Asiacrypt 2026 conference, guest lectures, and joint research endeavors, underscoring the importance of academic research in driving blockchain innovation.
The 2025 ethereum.org Translatathon represents a significant effort to broaden the accessibility of Ethereum’s core resources. This translation contest incentivizes contributions in less-active languages, aiming to increase the breadth of languages and content available on ethereum.org and onboard new contributors while rewarding existing ones. This initiative is critical for making Ethereum’s documentation and educational materials available to a truly global audience.
Developer Support and Talent Development:
Specific programs are also in place to support individual developers and teams. Lancerium is providing travel assistance to enable founders to attend Devconnect ARG, facilitating participation in key industry events. The Stablecoin (JPYC) Innovation Challenge, a cross-industry ideathon, aims to surface and accelerate solutions that leverage stablecoins, specifically JPYC, to address real business challenges across sectors like e-commerce, logistics, real estate, and accounting. This highlights a focus on practical, industry-specific applications of stablecoin technology.
Cryptography & Zero Knowledge Proofs: Advancing Security and Privacy
A substantial portion of the Foundation’s funding is directed towards advancing the frontiers of cryptography, particularly Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). These efforts are crucial for enhancing the privacy, security, and scalability of blockchain networks.
Foundational Research and Tooling Development:
Significant work is underway to improve the underlying infrastructure for ZKPs. AVAZAR: Automatic Verification Tools for zkVM Arithmetization by Albert Rubio supports the development of verification tools for circuits in LLZK, a critical step in ensuring the integrity of ZK proofs. The Evolution of the LLZK IR by Veridise continues the development of LLZK to strengthen it as shared, verification-oriented infrastructure for the ZK compiler ecosystem. This aims to enable more robust tooling, interoperability across ZK Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs), and improved correctness guarantees for ZK circuits.
The EPFL Laboratory for Computation Security is supporting PhD students researching foundational and applied cryptography. Their work addresses core limitations in current SNARK designs, including recursion security and the exploration of tradeoffs between proof size and security. This long-term research is vital for pushing the boundaries of what ZKPs can achieve.
Formal Verification and Software Assurance:
Formal verification plays a pivotal role in ensuring the security and correctness of cryptographic software. The Lean Backend for Hax by Cryspen continues the development of a Lean backend for Hax, allowing Rust code to be formally verified in Lean. This is essential for building high-assurance cryptographic software. Runtime Verification is investigating Lean 4-based formal verification of Rust components used in zkEVM and zkVM stacks, aiming to establish a practical Rust to Lean verification pipeline using the hax toolchain.
Axiom is undertaking the OpenVM Formal Verification project, focusing on the functional correctness of all RV32IM opcode circuits. The goal is to reduce the risk of soundness or completeness issues in OpenVM’s circuit design and contribute reusable formal verification infrastructure to the broader zkVM ecosystem. Nethermind is working on STIR & WHIR in ArkLib, formalizing key theorems for STIR and WHIR in Lean and supplementing them with an executable specification.
Specific ZKP Applications and Research:
Private Payments L2, developed by Vienhage Cybersecurity UG, is creating a prototype of a minimal, open-source app-specific L2 rollup for private stablecoin transfers, utilizing lightweight ZK circuits and a simplified sequencing model. This initiative directly addresses the demand for enhanced privacy in financial transactions.
Privote, developed by Shashank Trivedi, is a private on-chain voting protocol powered by MACI. It is currently hosting the frontend for the Gitcoin Grants 24: Privacy domain, showcasing a practical application of ZKPs for secure and private voting.
Research into The Recursive Extraction Problem by Nicholas Spooner is investigating the security of recursive composition in SNARKs, focusing on the recursive extraction problem that arises when security proofs require repeated application of knowledge extractors. This is fundamental research for secure recursive ZKP constructions.
Poseidon Cryptanalysis Bounty Program, led by Jintai Ding and Ziyu Zhao, aims to ensure that the interpolation attack is the fastest preimage attack on Poseidon and to verify that the complexity of the interpolation attack on reduced round versions matches theoretical estimates. This bounty program is a proactive approach to cryptanalytic security.
Nethermind is also investigating Tightening the Hash Size in Round-by-Round Sound IOPs, exploring whether multi-round, round-by-round sound SNARKs can safely use smaller hash digests, starting with feasibility studies in both the Random Oracle Model and the Quantum Random Oracle Model.
powdr labs and Certora are collaborating on Verifying Autoprecompiles, formally verifying powdr’s autoprecompiles to improve performance and accelerate adoption. Onur Kılıç, through the WHIR project, aims to accelerate WHIR and upstream it into Plonky3, contributing to the low-level stack of proving systems for Ethereum post-quantum signatures.
The Fiat-Shamir Specification project aims to formalize and specify the Fiat-Shamir transformation based on the Fiat-Shamir transformation from duplex sponges/spongefish construction. Kasra Abbaszadeh is conducting a Technical Review of Fiat-Shamir from Duplex Sponges, auditing security arguments and clarifying abstractions for rigorous reasoning.
Developer Experience & Tooling: Streamlining Development and Enhancing Security
Improving the developer experience and providing robust tooling are paramount for the growth and adoption of the Ethereum ecosystem. Several initiatives are focused on making development more efficient, secure, and accessible.
Data and Compiler Enhancements:
The Ethereum Developer Ecosystem Dataset, managed by Open Source Observer, aims to deliver an improved, reproducible, and publicly auditable view of Ethereum developer ecosystem data, along with a sustainable mechanism for keeping it updated. This data will be invaluable for understanding ecosystem trends and identifying areas for improvement.
Walnut is undertaking solc-mlir Middle End Optimization Layer for Solidity. This focused research effort aims to add an MLIR middle-end to the Solidity compiler, with the objective of achieving measurable gas savings and enabling richer correctness and safety analyses. Such compiler optimizations can lead to significant efficiency gains for smart contracts.
Execution Layer: Optimizing Performance and Integration
Efforts in the execution layer are focused on enhancing the performance and integration of key Ethereum components.
Helios Integration with Kohaku:
Karen Sarkisyan is working on the Helios Integration in Kohaku. This involves integrating Helios with the Kohaku browser extension, aiming to improve performance and ensure it is a portable and easily integrable part of the Kohaku SDK. This integration can lead to a more seamless and performant user experience for dApps interacting with the Ethereum network.
General Growth & Support: Fostering Public Goods and Policy Engagement
Beyond technical development, the Ethereum Foundation is actively supporting initiatives that promote public goods, facilitate research, and engage with policymakers to foster a favorable environment for decentralized technologies.
Funding Public Goods and Research:
Deep Funding Markets, powered by Seer, is a multiscalar prediction market where model builders bet on the value an open-source repository would receive if professionally evaluated. This system was notably used in Gitcoin Grants 24, demonstrating a novel approach to incentivizing and evaluating open-source development. Juror Voting for Deep Funding, managed by Allan Niemerg, is establishing a juror evaluation process, creating an app for collecting data from jurors, and integrating the results into the Deep Funding voting app, further refining the public goods funding mechanism.
The Gitcoin Grants 24: Privacy Domain and Gitcoin Grants 24: Public Goods R&D Domain highlight a commitment to co-funding critical areas. The Privacy domain supports privacy solutions for a secure on-chain Ethereum ecosystem, while the Public Goods R&D Domain supports academic and other research advancing insights into Ethereum public goods and their funding, with a focus on developing neutral, open-source solutions.
Policy and Advocacy:
The European Crypto Initiative (EUCI) is conducting EU-focused policy advocacy and education campaigns targeting key regulators and policymakers. This engagement is crucial for shaping regulatory frameworks that support innovation and protect users in the evolving digital asset landscape.
Other Initiatives: Enhancing Security and Developer Competitions
A range of other initiatives are addressing critical areas such as security, developer competitions, and infrastructure improvements.
Security Focus:
The Security Alliance (SEAL) is actively engaged in Anti-Crypto-Drainer Operations, tracking, discovering, and blocking crypto drainers that target EVM-based chains. This is a vital effort to protect users from malicious actors. Certora is hosting Capture the Funds, a Solidity-based CTF-style security competition where participants exploit vulnerable DeFi protocols. This competition serves as a valuable training ground for security researchers.
WalletConnect is building a Clear Signing Library and Proof of Concept (PoC) wallet to address the issue of blind signing, a significant security concern for users. OneSavie Lab is organizing a Kaggle Competition for LLM Identification of Smart Contract Vulnerabilities, utilizing the Bastet dataset. This initiative aims to attract both crypto security talent and non-crypto AI/LLM talent to develop advanced vulnerability detection methods.
Infrastructure and Runtime Development:
dRPC is working on NodeCore, incorporating network-level privacy into a high-performance, self-hosted RPC load-balancer. This aims to optimize request distribution across multiple blockchain providers or nodes, enhancing efficiency and reliability. ChainSafe is developing Open Creator Rails, a minimal, verifiable on-chain runtime for managing time-bound access to digital resources using deterministic entitlements.
Protocol Growth & Support: Strengthening Ethereum’s Core and Expanding its Reach
Initiatives in protocol growth and support are focused on strengthening the core Ethereum protocol, enhancing its security, and expanding its reach through research, education, and strategic collaborations.
Research and Development:
Chiachih Wu is designing and implementing LLM-Enabled Differential Testing on Ethereum Clients to accelerate vulnerability detection within the Ethereum protocol. This leverages advanced AI techniques to improve protocol security. Mike Neuder‘s doctoral work through the Protocol Fellowship focuses on using economic and computational tools to deepen the understanding of blockchain mechanism design. This research generates high-impact academic work and educational content, including public explainers and a new blockchain course at Princeton University.
Truscova is building a Smart Contract Vulnerability Database (SCVD), a system designed to collect, standardize, and publicly release vulnerability reports from various sources. This database will be a crucial resource for developers and security researchers.
Program Management and Community Engagement:
Timber Stinson-Schroff is managing the Summer of Protocols (SoP) Program, overseeing logistics, community management, and shaping the program’s long-term roadmap. SoP is a critical initiative for nurturing future protocol researchers and developers.
The Tor Project is providing technical support to the Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy Cluster, aiming to overcome technical barriers in integrating Tor with the Ethereum ecosystem. This collaboration focuses on improving the scalability of bridging to Tor and adapting the Arti Tor client for integration into wallets and frontends, thereby enhancing privacy for RPC calls like transaction broadcasting.
Women in Ethereum Protocol (WiEP) is actively fostering inclusivity. Mercy Boma Naps-Nkari and Arunima Chaudhuri are facilitating WiEP Cohort 4, developing workflows, coordinating mentors, and supporting events like the WiEP Brunch at Devconnect. Meenakshi Singh serves as the WiEP Cohort 4 Marketing Coordinator, managing communications and social media to amplify the program’s reach and impact.
Divya Ranjan Pattanaik is undertaking an informal internship focused on Ethereum protocol R&D, contributing to the ongoing innovation within the ecosystem.
These diverse initiatives, collectively supported by the Ethereum Foundation, paint a picture of a dynamic and rapidly evolving ecosystem. From empowering grassroots communities to pushing the boundaries of cryptographic research and enhancing developer tools, the Foundation’s strategic investments are aimed at building a more decentralized, secure, and accessible future for blockchain technology. The broad geographical reach and thematic diversity of these projects underscore Ethereum’s commitment to global collaboration and inclusive growth.
