Countdown to Pectra upgrade! Hoodi testnet is online, Vitalik explains the "wallet security" strategy and AI collaborative governance

Follow Brulu to learn about the important events of Ethereum in March!

Author: imToken

Cover: Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Since March 2025, the Ethereum Foundation has implemented various initiatives to strengthen governance and community engagement, such as appointing two co-executive directors, establishing an advisory group, and having former technical researchers return to the Foundation.

Vitalik Buterin has also reiterated the issue of wallet security, stating that "not only must we guard against theft, but we must also consider how to address the risk of asset loss," and proposed a governance model of "AI handling data analysis and humans providing strategic decision-making".

On March 17, 2025, the "Hoodi" testnet for Ethereum validator exit testing was launched, and the activation of Pectra's mainnet upgrade is tentatively scheduled for April 25, 2025. With the approaching upgrade and the expansion of the Ethereum ecosystem, the Ethereum Foundation has also paid more attention to issues such as "Ethereum must adhere to decentralization, open-source principles, and prevent technical monopolization by a few centralized entities, and avoid deviating from its founding values".

Ethereum Foundation Dynamics

Personnel Appointments

On March 1, 2025, the Ethereum Foundation announced the appointment of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors, effective March 17, 2025.

Introduction to the New Executive Directors of the Ethereum Foundation

• Hsiao-Wei Wang: She has been a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation for seven years and has been dedicated to the research of the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Tomasz Stańczak: He is the founder of the Ethereum client development team Nethermind and has rich experience in cultivating Ethereum technical talents.

The newly appointed co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang will also join the Ethereum Foundation's board of directors, which also includes:
• Board Chairman: Aya Miyaguchi • Ethereum Foundation Founder: Vitalik Buterin • Swiss Legal Advisor: Patrick Storchenegger

Establishment of an Advisory Group

After the announcement of the management personnel appointment, the Ethereum Foundation also announced the establishment of a new advisory group called the Silviculture Society, one of the goals of which is to ensure that Ethereum continues to adhere to the open-source principle and prevent Ethereum from deviating from its core values through the continuous provision of independent advice. Because as the Ethereum ecosystem expands, industry insiders are concerned that Ethereum may be influenced by external interests and deviate from its founding values, especially the open-source principle, and become centralized.

Vitalik Buterin defines the Silviculture Society as an "experimental" attempt. Although this group is not currently the official governance committee of the Ethereum Foundation, its core function is to collect and provide feedback from deep participants in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Currently, the group has 15 members, including Professor Matthew Green of Cryptography at Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the founder of the privacy platform Rotki, Lefteris Karapetsas. Most members choose to remain anonymous, which is in line with the spirit of early cryptocurrency and cyberpunk culture.

Former Technical Researcher Returns to the Ethereum Foundation

On March 1, 2025, former Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan announced in a post that he would join Etherealize as a co-founder and return to Ethereum.

Prior to this, Danny Ryan had served as the chief technical coordinator for the Ethereum The Merge upgrade, overseeing the launch of the beacon chain, and had also actively participated in the updates of many Ethereum Improvement Proposals.

Industry Voices

What is a Truly Robust Wallet Security Solution

On February 28, 2025, Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform stating: "The ecosystem needs to build truly robust wallet security solutions that not only prevent theft, but also consider how to address the risk of asset loss."

"Many users' cryptocurrency assets are lost not due to theft, but due to software vulnerabilities, forgotten passwords, lost devices, accidental damage to paper wallets, etc. Since there is no attacker to hold accountable, many victims are reluctant to discuss these losses, but in reality, such incidents occur frequently."

Previously, Vitalik Buterin had discussed the importance of social recovery wallets, emphasizing that the trusted contact mechanism can enhance users' control over their assets and reduce the risks associated with private key loss or theft.

Vitalik Buterin's original post on the X platform: https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1895358841568506053

AI + Human Collaborative Governance Model

On February 28, 2025, Vitalik Buterin discussed the issue of how AI can be integrated with governance systems in a blog post titled "AI as the Engine, Humans as the Steering Wheel", and proposed a model where "AI handles data analysis while humans provide strategic decision-making". This approach aims to leverage the efficient computational capabilities of AI while maintaining human judgment, in order to avoid the risks that may arise from AI-dominated decision-making.

The "AI + Human" collaborative governance model refers to combining the analytical capabilities of AI with the decision-making abilities of humans to create a more efficient and sustainable governance model. Vitalik Buterin also proposed using the "Futarchy economic model" to formulate policies, which involves using market predictions to guide policy decisions; or through "Distilled Human Judgment" to translate group consensus into executable AI instructions.

In this blog post, Vitalik Buterin also emphasized the need to develop decentralized, open-source AI models to prevent the technology from being monopolized by a few centralized entities, ensuring that AI serves as an extension of human will rather than a replacement for it.

Vitalik Buterin's blog post details: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/02/28/aihumans.html

Update on the Pectra Upgrade

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade has launched 4 testnets so far: the Mekong testnet launched on November 7, 2024, the Holesky testnet launched on February 24, 2025, the Sepolia testnet launched on March 5, 2025, and the "Hoodi" testnet launched on March 17, 2025.

During the Sepolia testnet run, the Ethereum Pectra upgrade encountered a technical glitch, with an anomaly in the deposit contract configuration causing errors and the emergence of empty block mining, leading to issues with some execution layer client nodes. The Ethereum development team has now fixed the vulnerability and pushed the update, and the network has resumed normal operation after validator nodes upgraded.

The launch of the Hoodi testnet aims to address the key issues faced by the Holeseky testnet, particularly the problem of validator queue congestion. If the testnet progress goes smoothly, the mainnet upgrade could potentially take place as early as April 25, 2025.

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