The calls from users and members of the Ethereum community for changes in the leadership of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) have not ceased. On this occasion, on January 30, 2025, an informal vote was held among participants of the network co-founded by Vitalik Buterin, in which a partial result indicates that Danny Ryan has the support of the majority of votes. 

Voting has been taking place since January 21, 2025, through a website created by a member of the Ethereum ecosystem, which in X calls itself” fabda.eth” on the X social network.  

At the time of this article, although it does not specify until when the election will be open, the vote for Ryan is 331 in favor and 10 against . In this system, it is not possible to elect another person, since the vote is based solely on “yes” or “no” for Ryan's leadership. 

Counting the positive votes, between them they have accumulated more than 51,000 ETH, an amount that currently exceeds 164 million dollars.  

The voting system created by fabda.eth weights votes based on the amount of ETH and its derivatives that a user has in their connected wallet at the time of voting. Both ETH on the Ethereum mainnet, ETH staked on the Beacon Chain, and ether-derived assets (the network's native token), such as wETH, stETH, rETH, and eETH on platforms like Aave, are considered. In addition, voting supports participation from second layer (L2) networks such as Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, and others. 

This election model proposes that those with the largest investments in Ethereum, whether through holdings, staking or participation in DeFi, have a proportional influence on decisions. Although it bets on governance based on economic investment and decentralized participation, it could also generate conflicts over the concentration of power in large holders. 

Who is Danny Ryan and why do Ethereum users want his leadership?

Danny Ryan is a prominent figure in the Ethereum ecosystem, known for his work as a researcher and developer within the Ethereum Foundation . He worked at that organization for seven years, retiring in mid-September 2024, for “personal reasons.”  

Ryan played a key role in the development of Ethereum 2.0 and the implementation of “The Merge,” Ethereum’s shift from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus system. Additionally, he was involved in the 2021 launch of the Beacon Chain, Ethereum’s consensus layer where staking is executed on the Ethereum mainnet. 

“He was a key player in the transition from PoW to PoS.” This was the response from fabda.eth, creator of the “Vote Danny Ryan” site, to the question “why him specifically?” in a thread on X. 

Ryan played a key role in the transition to the new Ethereum PoS consensus system. Source: slides live.

 Ryan acknowledged having started conversations with Vitalik Buterin to return to work at the EF, although he did not clarify under what role. One of the arguments users are pushing for this change is their dissatisfaction with the current management model of the Ethereum Foundation. They want Ryan to replace the director of that organization, Aya Miyaguchi. 

In addition, other users have expressed their discontent as they consider that the EF has not made progress in the development of the Ethereum main network. Currently, according to these complaints, there is an excessive dependence on the second layers of Ethereum.  

Currently, according to the L2Beat site, there are 143 Ethereum L2 networks, including those that are active, in development, or, for some reason, deprecated. It is important to note that this number can change and that different sources may have slightly different figures depending on how a viable L2 is defined or at what stage of development an L2 is considered to be “existing.” 

In this context, many are betting that Ryan's past as a developer could promote improvements in the Ethereum ecosystem, mainly on its core layer.