Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation spokesperson Josh Stark provided a detailed account of the Foundation's 2023 expenditures.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation spokesperson Josh Stark provided a detailed account of the Foundation's 2023 expenditures, following questions from the Ethereum community about the Ethereum Foundation's financial decisions.
The largest portion of the Foundation's budget, 36.5%, was allocated to "new institutions"—entities and organizations designed to strengthen the Ethereum ecosystem. Following closely was spending on Layer-1 (L1) research and development, which absorbed 24.9% of the Foundation's budget. This category included not only grants to external teams but also internal research efforts within the Ethereum Foundation. Key recipients of these funds were core Ethereum projects like Go-Ethereum (Geth), Solidity research, the Devcon conference, and the Ethereum Robust Incentives Group, among others.
The third-largest expenditure was dedicated to community development, accounting for 12.7% of the total budget. The remaining 25.9% of the Foundation's spending was spread across several areas, including applied zero-knowledge research (10.4%), internal operations, Layer-2 research initiatives, and resources for the developer platform.
In a reply to a question on his annual compensation, Buterin responded that he receives SGD$182,000 annually, or around USD$139,704. This drew comments from other X users, stating that it is lesser than C-suite executives at tech companies, and also praising Buterin for his transparency.
This financial transparency comes at a time when the Ethereum Foundation has faced criticism, particularly from Kain Warwick, a veteran developer in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Warwick recently accused Buterin and the Foundation of neglecting DeFi, arguing that only a small fraction of the annual budget is directed towards this crucial sector. He further claimed that the majority of the Foundation's funds are being squandered on what he called "nonsense."
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