A Swiss non-profit organization that supports the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain is temporarily halting support grants as it shifts toward funding “strategic initiatives.”
In a new blog post, The Ethereum Foundation (EF) says that it is pausing the Ethereum Support Program (ESP), which started in 2018 and provided funds for Ethereum developers to help the ecosystem thrive.
“As the Ethereum ecosystem grows in scale, complexity, and visibility, our funding approach must evolve alongside it. To align more closely with the EF’s updated ecosystem development strategy, we are refining ESP’s priorities and approach.
As part of this transition, we have temporarily paused open grant applications. This change will enable us time to redesign in a way that redirects our focus toward strategic initiatives, moving from a reactive model to a more proactive one that also supports the priorities of other EF teams.”
In a blog post earlier this year, the EF outlined the strategic initiatives they plan on shifting toward, including scaling the layer-1 blockchain, scaling blobs, and improving user interface. Blobs are temporary, large chunks of data that provide layer-2 rollups a dedicated space to post transaction data at a low cost.
In a recent protocol update, the nonprofit says that during the next 6-12 months, it will be working on improving user interface with a focus on interoperability.
“We see interoperability, and related projects presented in this note, as the highest leverage opportunity within the broader UX domain over the next 6-12 months, in our position as a public, core Ethereum R&D group.
The near-term strategy focuses on areas we believe will continue to be fundamental components of interop: Intent-based architecture and general message-passing. For both, our aim is to focus on clear, measurable protocol metrics to drive down latency and cost, while increasing security and trustlessness.”
Ethereum is trading at $4,343 at time of writing, a 3.8% decrease in the last 24 hours.
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