These insights and personal views come from Nothing Research Partner 0xTodd; the following content is not investment advice.

Recently, Vitalik’s lengthy piece on the Ethereum Foundation reforms really gives off a vibe of 'too much concern leading to confusion.'

Normally, V God’s articles are pretty heavy on the tech side, sometimes even a bit cryptic, but the overall message is usually crystal clear. This time, though, with the EF reforms, his piece feels a bit unfocused, like he’s writing and getting tangled up at the same time.

Especially after 2026, many key players within the Ethereum Foundation have already left or switched roles.

At the same time, the market is seeing more and more discussions about the long-term direction of Ethereum. Even the founder of Bankless (a long-time ETH supporter) announced they are offloading their ETH holdings. Such events reflect a change in sentiment within the community to some extent.

However, there are a few key points worth noting in Vitalik's article:

1. The EF will reduce coin sales going forward.

This is clearly one of the aspects the market is most concerned about. In reality, EF currently holds a relatively small amount of ETH, only about 0.16% of the total supply, roughly 200,000 coins.

2. Reiterating the core values of Ethereum.

Vitalik once again emphasized Ethereum's 'CROPS' values:

• Censorship resistance

• Resistance to capture

• Open source

• Privacy

• Security

In a sense, this value system is quite similar to the Ethereum charter mentioned earlier.

Translated, this actually means returning to the most original and fundamental goals of blockchain.

For example, rather than solely pursuing TPS or scaling speed, Vitalik hopes that Ethereum can continue to maintain its current security against 51% attacks. For Ethereum, security still takes precedence over scaling itself.

3. He didn’t ride the AI wave.

This is quite an interesting point.

Over the past year, nearly all tech narratives have been actively leaning towards AI, but Vitalik in this piece hardly tried to ride the AI wave; instead, he continued discussing the long-term value, governance structure, and foundational principles of Ethereum.

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Let’s share our views; they might not be completely correct, but they are for discussion purposes.

For quite some time, the Ethereum Foundation, like most blockchain foundations, has been responsible for a lot of core development, product advancement, and ecosystem coordination.

But starting in 2026, as key figures like Tim Beiko and Tomasz Stańczak gradually leave or transition to other roles, the EF seems to be intentionally shifting from an 'executive organization' to a 'mission-driven organization.'

Or rather, gradually stepping back from the frontline.

In a way, this may not be a bad thing.

However, Ethereum still needs to complete several critical tasks that are pending. For instance, the upcoming upgrade roadmap, continuing the push towards ZK on the mainnet, and further increasing the Gas Limit.

If Ethereum can boost its mainnet performance by 2-3 times while maintaining its current level of security and decentralization, that might be enough to establish a significant narrative for the next phase of the entire Ethereum ecosystem.