Joe Lubin, SharpLink and Bitmine back new Ethereum research lab

A group of former Ethereum Foundation researchers has launched an independent nonprofit called Ethlabs, funded by major Ethereum treasury firms SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), alongside Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin and other entities including Anchorage Digital, Octant and SNZ.

The organization is led by five former senior Ethereum Foundation contributors: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma, who worked on scaling, data availability, protocol economics and network finality. The launch comes amid upheaval at the Switzerland-based Ethereum Foundation, where co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announced she would step down and Ma and Monnot departed earlier this year.

Supporters portray Ethlabs as part of a shift toward a "multi-node" development model for advancing the network.

Switzerland

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