🟢 LIVE: Who Controls Ethereum Now? EF Restructuring & the Rise of EthLabs

The Ethereum Foundation just cut 20% of its staff and 40% of its budget, marking a deliberate shift to a narrower scope. In response, a new organization backed by SharpLink, Bitmine, and Joseph Lubin has emerged: ETH Labs. Camila Russo talks with Joseph Chalom (SharpLink) and Victor Bunin (Coinbase) about what this new entity is meant to do, how it's funded, and whether Ethereum's shift toward decentralized, multi-organization stewardship is the right path forward. Topics covered: Why ETH Labs was created, who's backing it, and what problems it aims to solve that the EFF is stepping away from The overlap — and potential competition — between ETH Labs' priorities and the Ethereum Foundation's new focus How ETH Labs will be funded, its non-profit structure, and safeguards against funder capture The tension between what's good for ETH the asset versus what's good for Ethereum the protocol Why subsidizing L2 activity was a rational growth strategy, not a mistake What's coming in the Glamsterdam/Glastonbury upgrade — quantum resistance, higher throughput, native privacy, and synchronous composability Centralized versus decentralized leadership: comparing Ethereum's fragmented governance model to Solana's more centralized approach Guests: Joseph Chalom (SharpLink Gaming) and Victor Bunin (Coinbase) Host: Camila Russo, The Defiant