Woofun AI reports that the Ethereum Foundation has executed a strategic restructuring involving the dismissal of 20% of its staff while simultaneously unveiling a rigid five-layer operational framework. This decisive move signals a shift from a previously loose organizational model to a clearly defined mandate designed to navigate the current crypto market wave. The new architecture explicitly categorizes responsibilities into the Protocol Layer, Access Layer, User Layer, Community Layer, and Institutional Layer, establishing a strict division of labor for the coming years.

The Protocol Layer serves as the foundational bedrock, tasked with maintaining the core attributes of Ethereum known as CROPS: Censorship-resistant, Robust, Open, Private, and Secure. Vitalik Buterin has long emphasized these pillars as non-negotiable, and this layer focuses intensely on underlying technological imperatives such as safely advancing hard forks, reducing trusted dependencies, resisting quantum threats, and combating toxic MEV. This represents the bottom-line task for the foundation, anchoring the core value of the network. The stance remains firm that Ethereum's self-sovereignty will not be sacrificed for short-term financialization, institutionalization, or fleeting market narratives. While the current environment makes this difficult, as embracing institutions often appears flawless to users, the foundation argues that decentralization is not an excuse for marketing laziness. If Ethereum is viewed as a brand new world, CROPS constitutes the absolute bottom line of its world order. Consequently, actively meeting the needs of various roles within this new world, without breaching this bottom line, is the only viable path to escape the utopia of the geek world and provide genuine value. This critical work does not necessarily have to be performed solely by the foundation, which has repeatedly expressed its position, hoping other organizations will eventually assume these responsibilities.

Woofun AI on-chain data shows that the Access Layer addresses the practical reality of whether users can truly utilize Ethereum's self-sovereignty capabilities. The foundation outlines several key actions required for this layer: reading the chain, transacting, proving, authorizing, and exiting. The objective is to ensure that users and future agents representing them can execute these operations without relying on unverifiable intermediaries. A pivotal principle governing this layer is 'zero-knowledge,' which mandates that for every intermediary path, a credible, non-intermediated alternative path must exist and remain available at all times. This principle is crucial for network resilience. The most direct illustration of its importance is the scenario where a front end crashes or a server goes down; under this framework, users must still be able to interact with their funds directly through the contract. Those who have previously been trapped by such failures can deeply appreciate the significance of maintaining this direct access capability.

The User Layer is designed to ensure that the foundation's work remains grounded in the needs of real users and real organizations, focusing heavily on user segmentation and user profiling. Its primary function is to connect the Protocol Layer and the Access Layer, ensuring that development efforts truly reach end-users rather than existing in a vacuum of imagination. Historically, this has been a significant shortcoming for the foundation, as many discussions tended to be overly research-oriented or infrastructure-focused. The past prosperity of Ethereum, exemplified by DeFi summer and NFT summer, primarily stemmed from community innovation where the application side and technology side had no intersection, and no feedback loop existed from applications back to technology. This disconnect led to an unexpected period of prosperity. While some attribute this success to luck and others to inevitable technological accumulation, the ecosystem did guide a massive explosion of on-chain applications, marking crypto's entry into a new era.

However, at that time, choices for developers and users were limited, causing smart money and talent to congregate on Ethereum. Today, the landscape is vastly different with L1 and L2 solutions appearing everywhere and the cost of launching chains rapidly decreasing. Although Ethereum retains security and stability as its biggest moat, this value is not easily recognized by users and developers when competitors do not immediately expose problems. Therefore, the User Layer represents the most critical area for the foundation to focus on, as a new world must understand what its residents want.

Woofun AI observes that the Community Layer aims to maintain and disseminate the consensus of Ethereum's values both within and outside the ecosystem. Internally, it helps the community understand why Ethereum exists, what it should uphold, and what narratives it must not be swayed by. Externally, it facilitates connections with adjacent fields such as open source, privacy, civil liberties, and public interest technology. The consensus required to be established includes not being coerced by centralized interests, upholding technological neutrality unaffected by cultural or political factors, and adhering to a CROPS-based value system without sacrificing any aspect for short-term commercial interests. The loosening of consensus in the current cycle is arguably the most severe in history. Previously, when crypto had not entered mainstream view, the user base was small, applications were scarce, and prices were sluggish, so these issues did not cause users to lose faith in decentralization. In this cycle, however, the launch of spot ETFs for BTC and ETH, the emergence of DAT companies, and the U.S. stablecoin bill have brought institutions into the fold to layout and develop L1 networks, exposing more people to crypto. While this exposure is a significant success, the impacts are becoming apparent, subtly changing the underlying logic of the market. For instance, a large number of stablecoins on-chain have brought TVL while replacing the monetary attributes of BTC and ETH. The term 'coin-based' has become rare; before USDT was born, exchanges used a coin-to-coin trading model mostly against BTC. During DeFi summer, most on-chain LPs traded against ETH, and NFTs were priced in ETH. Today, these practices are disappearing as the hand of U.S. dollar hegemony reaches into the blockchain, and DAT companies package crypto into forms they once despised. Perspectives on decentralization have shifted from opposing traditional finance opacity to questioning whether institutions need decentralization. While institutions have limited demand for decentralization, changing the underlying consensus of public chains to welcome them risks creating a second internet where a few authoritative institutions control network nodes. If this continues, chains may become national or institutional chains, making it easy to cut off business for entities like Iran on an American chain. Maintaining neutrality and decentralized public chains is comparable to the high seas, a concept that holds significant merit.

The Institutional Layer is responsible for the foundation's interactions with institutions, but strictly with self-sovereignty as a prerequisite. The foundation's expression towards institutions is not about making it easier for them to control users, but rather emphasizing the creation of better integration cases using Ethereum and cryptographic technology. This distinction is clear: truly universal businesses that continuously serve global users are best suited for the Ethereum public chain because they will never be disturbed by coercive means or factors.