Cardano Founder Questions Vitalik’s Autonomy Over Ethereum Foundation Leadership Decision

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has been in the spotlight recently as the community scored a wind of some controversial operational and management issues. Amid EF’s ongoing leadership transition, Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson has questioned what he believes is an anomaly. 

The Flaw In Ethereum Foundation Leadership Selection

Charles Hoskinson reacted directly to a post from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s post about his current role at the Foundation. Vitalik had staged a defense in support of Aya Miyaguchi, the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation. Notably, several community members are calling for her resignation.

To support Miyaguchi, Vitalik Buterin responded to an X user, CoinMamba, who highlighted plans to mount pressure on the ED for her to resign. Wading in, Buterin said the “keep the pressure on” tactic is not good for the ecosystem.

He said he is deciding the composition of the new EF leadership. While his statement meant no harm and sought to defuse the community’s toxicity, Cardano’s founder flagged something off.

Sharing a Batman animation on X, Hoskinson asked if the post from Vitalik means he” gets to unilaterally decide on the EF Leadership team?”

So V gets to unilaterally decide on the EF leadership team? https://t.co/7Xxn9yUYZx pic.twitter.com/UyMV98JNDX

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 21, 2025

The Community Reaction

It is worth noting that the question posted by Charles Hoskinson has triggered sentiments related to this issue in the broader community. 

Many commenters contrasted the Cardano model for choosing constitutional committee members. Last year, ecosystem members voted for Delegate Representatives (DReps) to participate in decentralized governance.

Cardano achieved this at a time when it launched the change hard fork on the mainnet. Community members compared this model to Vitalik Buterin’s authoritative stance about choosing leaders for the Ethereum Foundation.

Meanwhile, Buterin revealed the primary focus for the EF in a post on X over the weekend. He claimed via the post that the Ethereum Foundation leaders will seek to enhance communications with the ecosystem.

The Fight For Dominance: Ethereum, Solana and Cardano In Spotlight

Pioneering the smart contract innovation has given Ethereum the first-mover advantage in the Web3 ecosystem. However, the duo of Cardano and Solana are introducing innovations to unseat Ethereum as the dominant chain.

Thus far, Cardano has only matched up with its introduction of decentralized governance. Solana has made an impressive showoff recently. However, it is beginning to experience troubling congestion issues. 

The launch of TRUMP and MELANIA over the weekend triggered some chain issues. These congestion issues came after Coinbase listed TRUMP. While these three chains deepen their rivalry in the smart contract ecosystem, many believe more work is required to take the ultimate leadership badge.