Ethereum’s core development might be heading for a funding crunch. A former Ethereum Foundation contributor, VanEpps, says the network could face a development funding crisis within the next three to nine months.
The warning comes after the Core Immersion Program (CIP) expired. That program funded full-time contributors working on core protocol development. Without it, the pipeline of people able to work on Ethereum full-time gets a lot thinner.
This isn’t just an Ethereum Foundation budget issue. Core development — the people maintaining clients, reviewing EIPs, and keeping the network running — doesn’t fund itself. It relies on grants, donations, and foundation support. When those dry up, progress slows down. Sometimes dramatically.
Ethereum’s had funding conversations before, and they’re never pretty. The ecosystem generates billions in value, but funneling even a fraction of that back to the developers maintaining the base layer has always been a struggle.
Nine months isn’t immediate, but it’s close enough to start paying attention. If you’re building on Ethereum, this is worth watching.
