According to foreign media, Trent Vanepps, who had served on the Etherwood Foundation, warned that the development of ecology in the Etherak could be under financial pressure in the next three to nine months. This judgement does not refer to short-term budget fluctuations, but rather to a shrinking long-term funding base that supports client teams, researchers and contract developers.

Annual requirements approximately $30 million

VanEpps estimates that approximately US$ 30 million per year is needed to develop the ecology at the Taifung core to support client teams, researchers, coordinators and protocol developers. In his view, the size of the network was already quite large and the cost was not high, but the infrastructure and research and development work undertaken by the teams involved was difficult to quickly replace.

He noted that the current pressure was mainly due to two changes: first, that the Taifeng Foundation was reducing expenditure; and second, that the original client incentive scheme had ended but that the alternatives had not been announced.

  • The Etherdorf Foundation introduced a fund management programme in 2025.
  • Annual expenditure target is proposed to decrease from 15 per cent to about 5 per cent in 2030
  • The client incentive scheme expired in April 2026

It's not easy for the foundation to stay behind.

According to the article, part of the controversy came from the “Subtration” approach long emphasized by the ISF. At the heart of this line of thought is that the Foundation should not serve as a power centre for the network for a long period of time, but should allow more independent institutions to gradually assume their responsibilities.

According to VanEpps, this direction is conceptually clear, but the reality is that ecology has not yet fully taken over the many roles of the Foundation. Even though the Foundation deliberately retreated, it maintained a strong influence through large-scale events such as brands, funds reserves, research teams, Etheum.org and Devcon, as well as close links to Vitalik Buterin.

The next stage requires a new successor.

VanEpps also mentioned that Buterin had recently also indicated that the Taifung Foundation had not been established from the outset to manage the network permanently. This means that, as the Ethera enters the next phase, the ecology needs new institutions, funding modalities and governance arrangements to take over the core development work.

If stable funding is not made available in a timely manner, he believes that the ETA may face several consequences, including the loss of senior developers, the slowing of the expansionary drive and the impact of long-term studies such as quantum resistance. More directly, there is a risk that external expectations of the reliability of the Ethera will be affected.

According to the article, this is more like urging communities to establish sustainable funding mechanisms as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the impact of the lack of investment becomes apparent after a year or two.