According to the media, the co-founder of StarkWare, Eli Ben-Sasson, has recently argued in the context of the Taicha ecology, arguing that communities should not over-emphasize “consensual positions” when judging teams and technical routes, but should place more emphasis on technology itself. This statement comes at a time when the ETA Foundation is experiencing personnel changes and core development funding has been the focus of discussions.
Foundation change and fund discussion
In the recent past, the Etherak Foundation has experienced a succession of high-level and member adjustments. Earlier, Hsiao-Wei Wang had resigned as Co-Executive Director and Board Member at the end of his leave; earlier, Tomasz Stańczak had also left the position of Co-Executive Director.
At the same time, Trent Van Epps, a former contributeer of the Taifung Foundation, warned that the development of the Taifung core might face a funding gap in the next three to nine months. He linked this risk to the reduction of expenditures and the end of the Clitivity Programme. Tom Lee then countered that such a crisis was “nearly impossible”.
Ben-Sasson recalls StarkWare selection
Ben-Sasson states that the first fee line taken over by StarkWare in 2019 and 2020 was to develop a ZK-STARK system for the use of the Taipei to accommodate scalability and quantum resistance. He stated that the aim of the exercise at that time was to help expand the Etherpo and to prepare in advance for future quantum safety risks.
He also mentioned that StarkWare ' s subsequent choices in the STARKs, Cairo, zkVM, the abstract nature of primary accounts and the expansion of Bitcoin were not always welcomed, and that some of the routes were once perceived by critics as inconsistent with the mainstream direction of the Taichang. In his view, however, those decisions remained the right technical choice.
The debate turned to "technology" or "stationary"
Ben-Sasson stated that he did not want to join the criticism of the Foundation, nor was he claiming that the Etherak had approached the end; he did not, however, think that everything was okay. He wrote that the Ether House has many advantages and has its own political nature.
In his view, there was too much ecological focus on “consistency” and insufficient emphasis on technical value. According to him, truly useful engineering work may not necessarily be at the centre of consensus at the outset, but may also be developed outside the mainstream route before entering the wider technology grid.
Ben-Sasson did not propose a formal governance programme, but his statement put StarkWare's experience in the larger Etherwood governance discussion. The balance between independent technological choices and ecological synergies remains part of the current debate for the Layer2 team, which relies on Etherfamation and Safety.