Controversial opinion: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) should rename itself to accurately reflect what it actually does, and to stop the media from posting misleading clickbait FUD articles about it

The media never talks about what the EF's actual function. That would be really boring. Almost every single media article about the Ethereum Foundation concerns its selling of ETH.

I realize this is extremely controversial, but it will be better for the community to stop focusing on EF's selling when it only holds 0.2% of ETH supply and only sold 4766 ETH in 2024.

The ETH selling is completely trivial:

• The EF sold 0.004% of ETH supply in 2024
• Bitcoin annual inflation was 1.7% in 2024
• Solana annual inflation was 4.7% in 2024
• Every DAY, Bitcoin miners can sell a larger percent of Bitcoin than the EF does in an entire YEAR.
• Every DAY, Solana validators can sell a larger percent of SOL than EF does in an entire YEAR

Due to the Principle of Subtraction, the Ethereum Foundation has relinquished most of its original roles. Its remaining functions are all related to sponsoring tools, research grants, and promoting academic outreach.

If laymen knew that the EF mainly functions to provide grants, it would be extremely obvious why they regularly sell ETH, and no one would be questioning it.

The misconception is due to the word "Foundation"

Unfortunately, when laymen and media see the word "Foundation", they incorrectly assume that it controls, governs, and develops the blockchain. And then they question why an organization that does this is selling ETH instead of holding it. The media takes advantage of this to write clickbait FUD articles.

The EF actually has no control over Ethereum governance, consensus, or development. It has indirect influence over them through grants, but no direct control.

What does the Ethereum Foundation do?

It consists of 3 programs:

1. Ecosystem Support Program: Allocates funds to sponsor critical projects in research, infrastructure, tooling, and community and education.
   • https://esp.ethereum.foundation/about/who-we-support
   • Some examples include node clients (e.g. Nimbus, Erigon, Lighthouse), research (Verkle Trees, ePBS), and tools (revoke.cash, growthepie, EVM Gas Cost estimator)
2. Devcon: Hosts annual Devcon meetups
3. Fellowship Program: Helps sponsor project grants. Identifies and fund individuals working on public goods or research projects related to blockchains (not necessarily Ethereum)

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Renaming the EF

To better reflect what it actually does, I believe the EF needs to rename itself to something like "Ethereum Grant Program". This would immediately get the media off its back.

And people will stop asking misleading questions like "Why is a blockchain Foundation selling its own cryptocurrency?"

If they want to stop the FUD, they need to rename the EF.