The well-known historian who wrote a book on the creation of Ethereum cannot find the answer to a simple question. No matter how many times she asks – as much as yesterday – no one tells her the number of votes Vitalik Buterin controls the Ethereum Foundation and its $400 million Treasury.
This is a question that affects millions of ETH token holders around the world, including hundreds of thousands of wallets trading on a particular day.
Book author Laura Singh Crypto Over the years, I have asked one question about the formation of Ethereum and its early years. Does Vitalik Buterin have three bosses or do four board members vote equally?
The Ethereum Foundation’s board of directors includes four current directors: Vitalik Buterin, Aya Miyaguchi, Hsiao-Wei Wang and Patrick Storchenegger. Due to the many changes in leadership over time, Butarine is a founding member and widely recognized as a project leader.
However, the foundation regularly downplays his role and writes for a very long time to highlight community-focused governance.
In a series of joint statements yesterday, I wrote on my blog about “updating on focus areas” and “how to achieve EF’s vision” that will bring in “co-executive directors.”
Buterin and Miyaguchi co-written a new vision statement for the foundation. All four board members jointly re-announced the changes in executive personnel.
All of these communications conveyed a shared sense of surveillance as if not one person but a team retained the ultimate authority over Swiss entities.
There is no answer on Vitalik’s voting power yet
Nevertheless, despite more than 12 attempts by Shin to clarify how much power Buterin has, the Ethereum Foundation has not made clear how its voting power is distributed.
In 2020, Storchenegger told Shin that Buterin had won three votes. Even if all three other board members oppose Buterin, it would be enough to unilaterally decide the board’s decision.
Buterin, however, shook his strength in an official statement, talking about occasionally only having one vote.
Read more: Vitalik Buterin supports one of North Korea’s favorite coin mixers, Railgun
Overall, his power over the board of directors of the Ethereum Foundation is unknown. Despite the four-person board, it appears they are not interested in disclosing the number of votes each member has.
The supportive comments highlighted Singh’s repeated questions. “I hope you get an honest response,” one observer wrote. “I hope we get an answer to this question, which is important for transparency,” another commented.
Protos will contact the Ethereum Foundation for comments and will update if we receive a response.