Here is the English translation of the text, with the terms in <> retained as is: On March 10, 2025, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced that Hsiao-Wei Wang (Chinese name Wang Xiaowei) has been promoted to the Board of Directors, becoming the first Chinese-American leader to rise from the technical grassroots to the Board in the seven-year history of EF. This appointment is seen as a key signal of EF's response to the ecological crisis and the reconstruction of its governance system - against the backdrop of Ethereum facing a "mid-life crisis" such as the Solana ecosystem impact, Layer 2 ecosystem fragmentation, and a deficit of community trust, the rise of technocrats may initiate a silent revolution. Who is Hsiao-Wei Wang? The "Breaker" from Code to Power Hsiao-Wei Wang (@hwwonx), Chinese name Wang Xiaowei (hereinafter referred to as Hsiao-Wei Wang): one of the new executive directors, an early core researcher, and a connector between the community and technology. Technical Authority: The Behind-the-Scenes Driver of Sharding and Merge Hsiao-Wei Wang's career began with a deep connection to code and protocols. In 2017, she joined the EF as a core researcher, and with her technical background from a master's degree in network engineering from National Chiao Tung University, she led the design of the Ethereum beacon chain architecture and the smooth implementation of the 2022 "Merge". Her proposed sharding scaling solution was praised by Vitalik as the "crystallization of Asian wisdom", and the EIP-4844 proposal she authored directly reduced Layer 2 gas fees by 90%, driving the daily active users of the Base chain to exceed 2 million. Community Bridge: The Pioneer of the Asia-Pacific Ecosystem The 2018 Taipei Sharding Workshop was Hsiao-Wei Wang's "breakthrough battle" - this event first brought global core developers to Asia, breaking the Western tech circle's prejudice against the capabilities of Asia-Pacific developers. Celer Network founder Dong Mo commented: "She made the EF hear the voice of Eastern developers." Subsequently, she traveled to South Korea, Vietnam, and other places to establish fast-track developer funding channels, increasing the proportion of Asian teams receiving EF Grants from 5% (2017) to 22% (2024), successfully forging her dual identity as a "tech geek" and "community operator" into power capital. New Paradigm of Power: The Logic of the Rise of Technocrats Hsiao-Wei Wang's promotion path (from core researcher to Asia-Pacific community ambassador to co-executive director) reflects the shift in EF's governance logic: from the "Vitalik unipolar authority" to the "technology + infrastructure dual-track". She forms a complementary combination with Nethermind founder Tomasz Stanczak - the former focuses on sharding scaling and the Asia-Pacific ecosystem, while the latter leads client development and MEV mechanism optimization. This "Eastern tech geek + Western infrastructure architect" power structure is the proactive choice of the EF to address the ecosystem fragmentation. Ethereum's Dilemma and Hsiao-Wei Wang's "Surgical Knife" Ethereum's Triple Crisis · Technical Debt and Ecosystem Fragmentation: The Ethereum mainnet has long hovered around 90 transactions per second, while Solana, with its single-chain high throughput and MEME wealth effect, has grabbed users. The rampant growth of Layer 2 has exacerbated ecosystem fragmentation: Base and other L2s channel 90% of their revenue to Coinbase, with less than 1% of the funds reinvested into the mainnet, and even teams like Optimism have publicly confronted the EF over the "Blob Data Sharing Protocol". The "sharding + ZK-Rollup" solution pushed by Hsiao-Wei Wang needs to achieve millions of TPS before 2026, or it may be questioned by the community as a "paper blueprint". · Governance Trust Deficit: The EF's sale of 4,466 ETH in 2024 caused a 30% market capitalization evaporation, with the community accusing it of "dumping and cashing out". Although Vitalik explained that the sale was for employee compensation and ecosystem donations, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, after reviewing the budget report, pointed out that the EF's annual burn rate reached $130 million and needs to be reduced to $30 million with team downsizing. More seriously, core developer Eric Conner announced his resignation due to the "EF's resistance to change", and Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk hinted at the establishment of a "second foundation", directly pointing to the EF's power monopoly. · Weakening Value Narrative: The era of DeFi and NFT dual-engine drive has ended, and Ethereum's "world computer" narrative has been crushed by Solana's "casino economics". Trump's issuance of the TRUMP coin on Solana triggered a FOMO frenzy, with its on-chain USDC issuance growing 600% in half a year, while Ethereum's high gas fees forced Meme coin developers to migrate en masse. Although Hsiao-Wei Wang's EIP-4844 proposal reduced Layer 2 fees by 90%, the thriving 2 million daily active users on the Base chain did not translate into value capture for ETH. Technocrat's Breakthrough Experiment · Power Coding at the Protocol Layer: Hsiao-Wei Wang is transforming technical ideals into governance rules. Through the Cancun upgrade, she introduced a "social consensus layer" that dynamically links the EF's ETH sale quota to the mainnet staking rate, mitigating market panic; she also mandated that L2s pay a 5% revenue share to the mainnet (similar to Web2 platform commissions) based on Blob data volume, although opposed by Optimism, this may reshape Ethereum's value distribution mechanism. Dynamic Selling Mechanism Game Theory Model The "EF's ETH sale quota linked to mainnet staking rate" rule designed by Hsiao-Wei Wang is not a simple administrative order, but an algorithm-constrained Nash equilibrium: · When the mainnet staking rate ≥ 25%, the EF's monthly sale limit is 300 ETH; · If the staking rate falls below 20%, the sale quota automatically drops to zero. This mechanism forces the EF and the stakers to form a community of common interests - when the staking rate fell to 18% in August 2024, the EF's suspension of sales caused ETH prices to rebound 12% in a single day, validating the market's positive feedback on rule transparency. Economic Rationality of L2 Revenue Sharing Mandating Layer 2s to pay a 5% revenue share (3% to the mainnet staking pool, 2% to core developers) based on Blob data volume is essentially solving the "tragedy of the commons": · The Base chain generates about 2,000 Blobs per day (worth $20,000), and under this rule, it needs to pay $7.3 million to the mainnet annually, equivalent to 15% of Coinbase's extracted profits; · Compared to 10%-20% node validator fees charged by competitors like Polygon, Ethereum's commission ratio is already moderate. This move can add at least $50 million in annual revenue to the mainnet, easing EF's fiscal pressure. Fusion of Eastern and Western Governance Philosophy: The "Tech Tea House" mechanism she leads invites Vitalik and grassroots developers to dialogue monthly, weakening the authoritative worship of the "V God"; at the same time, she tacitly allows Chinese teams to experiment with sharding variants on the compliant Hong Kong chain, reserving technical options for future upgrades. Agenda Setting of the Tech Tea House The monthly developer dialogues are not just "idle talk", but use an improved version of Robert's Rules of Order:

· The priority of the issues is determined by the number of GitHub issue likes (to avoid internal control by the EF);

· Each proposal must be accompanied by a feasibility assessment report from at least 3 Layer 2 teams. The "EIP-7624 Proposal" (optimizing the cross-chain Gas fee prediction model) passed at the November 2024 meeting was proposed by the Metis team and passed unanimously at the tea house meeting.

· Technical Strategy for Hong Kong Sharding Experiment

Allowing Chinese teams to test "dynamic sharding" technology (automatically adjusting the number of shards based on transaction load) on a compliant chain, which is a "technical sandbox" to address geopolitical risks:

· The Hong Kong Cyberport Chain has achieved 5000 TPS on a single shard, and its compatibility with the Ethereum mainnet's ZK-Rollup is 95%;

· This experiment has reserved a switchable "China solution" for the 2026 mainnet upgrade - if US regulations escalate, the technical modules of the Hong Kong chain can be quickly transplanted to the mainnet.

· Compliance Game of DeFi Staking: Establish a 5-of-3 multi-signature wallet, inject $150 million worth of ETH into protocols like Aave to generate yield, in an attempt to overturn EF's "sell-only, no-earn" image, and test the compliance elasticity of decentralized finance at the edge of SEC regulatory red lines.

The checks and balances mechanism of the multi-signature wallet: $150 million worth of ETH is injected into a 5-of-3 multi-signature wallet composed of Chainlink, Aave, EF, Gnosis and Lido, with each operation leaving a on-chain trace:

· The profit distribution formula is written into the smart contract (60% for developer grants, 30% for ETH buyback and burn, 10% as a risk reserve fund);

· Even if faced with an SEC investigation, this structure can defend itself through "protocol self-operation" (the 2024 Uniswap victory case has established relevant precedents). After half a year of operation, the fund's annualized yield reached 8.2% (about $12.3 million), far exceeding the cash flow from EF's ETH sales.

Unfinished Battles and Hidden Worries

· Collision of Technological Idealism and Reality: Under the threat of Solana's single-chain million-level TPS, Xiao-Wei Wang's "sharding + ZK-Rollup" plan needs to be implemented by 2026, or it will be questioned as a "paper blueprint";

· Risk of Community Fragmentation: Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk hinted at the establishment of a "second foundation", and radical reforms may anger the "V God fundamentalists";

· Compliance Minefield: EF's collaboration with Coinbase on a privacy cross-chain bridge may violate the US "Blended Asset Act", and Xiao-Wei Wang still needs to prove the "protocol neutrality" at a congressional hearing to avoid the fate of Ripple.

· Cultural Conflict: Western developers criticize its "Asian efficiency priority" strategy, which has led to a 30% increase in testnet vulnerability rates, and it still needs to recalibrate between code rigor and iteration speed.

The "30% increase in testnet vulnerability rates" criticized by Western developers is the inevitable result of the trade-off between iteration speed and security:

· The EF Asia-Pacific team adopted Toyota-style "kanban management", compressing the upgrade cycle from 6 months to 3 months, but according to Linux Foundation research, a 50% reduction in code review time will lead to a 25%-40% increase in vulnerability rates;

· Xiao-Wei Wang introduced Formal verification tools (such as Certora) for automated auditing, reducing the number of critical bugs by 60%, but at the cost of a $2 million increase in development costs per year.

Epilogue: A Silent "Technical Breakthrough"

Xiao-Wei Wang's involvement also indirectly reflects Ethereum's transformation from a "genius teenager" to a "technical middle-aged" - no longer fully relying on Vitalik's inspirational bursts, but on systematized engineering thinking and gradual reform. This "Chinese technocrat" -led change may foreshadow Ethereum's back-to-the-wall battle against the "midlife crisis", and a new chapter where code politics meets Confucian-Taoist wisdom, injecting Eastern governance philosophy into the decentralized system.

Original Link

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Twitter Official Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia