Ethereum Foundation (EF) announces the establishment of the Silviculture Society

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has announced the formation of an advisory group known as the Silviculture Society, which is meant to counsel the organization informally and help uphold its work ethos and effort to uphold Ethereum’s core values.

In a Friday X post, the Ethereum Foundation has launched the Silviculture Society, a collective of external blockchain experts tasked with providing informal advice to the organization. 

The initiative aims to ensure Ethereum remains committed to principles such as open-source development, privacy, security, and resistance to censorship.

Blockchain expert developers join EF through the Silviculture society

The advisory group includes well-known figures from across the blockchain space and crypto community. Among them are Synthetix contributor going by the X handle @llamaonthebrink, Web3 security researcher @alpeh_v, Golem Foundation co-founder Julian Zawistowski, and Sigil NFT developer @Enoch. In total, 15 individuals have been appointed to the society.

“Ethereum’s success depends on having talented and committed developers building with these values in mind, and EF’s ethos and work has always been centered around them,” the Ethereum Foundation said.

Developers included in the list were generally “excited” about their roles on the foundation. “Happy to be involved in this initiative with several people I have worked with before and others I know by reputation,” said one member.

gm Silviculture Society 🥰 https://t.co/vu8z5ONxST

— mrs kzg.eth (@kassandraETH) February 28, 2025

A particularly more headlined inclusion is Kassandra, co-founder and CTO of Arrakis Finance, an Ethereum Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) market. Arrakis Finance publicly congratulated Kassandra, stating, 

“This collective will advise the Ethereum Foundation to ensure it upholds Ethereum’s core values of open source, privacy, security, and censorship resistance. We look forward to watching the infinite garden flourish in 2025 and beyond.”

EF donates $1.25M to Tornado Cash developer’s legal defense

The Ethereum Foundation announced a $1.25 million donation to support the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev, a developer behind Tornado Cash. The US Treasury sanctioned the Ethereum-based privacy tool in 2022, alleging that it facilitated illicit transactions, including those tied to North Korean hackers.

On Wednesday, EF doubled down on its stance on software development as a “fundamental right”, stating on X, “Writing code is not a crime.” The organization also provided a link for others who wished to contribute to Pertsev’s legal fund.

The EF is donating $1.25M to the legal defense of Alexey Pertsev.

Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.

You can contribute to @alex_pertsev's defense here: https://t.co/shWFNoDJ9g https://t.co/ITvEiRkAGt

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) February 26, 2025

Tornado Cash is a crypto mixing service designed to allow users to send and receive Ethereum anonymously. Yet, US authorities claim the tool was used to launder stolen funds from cryptocurrency hacks. The case has gotten the interest of privacy advocates, including some US lawmakers, who propounded that sanctioning the software amounts to an attack on digital privacy and civil liberties.

Aya Miyaguchi transitions to EF president

In other news, EF’s executive director, Aya Miyaguchi, announced she is stepping down from her current role and will assume a newly created position as president of the foundation. The leadership transition was outlined in a blog post published on Tuesday.

Miyaguchi stated that her new role would focus on expanding EF’s institutional relationships and furthering its long-term vision. She framed Ethereum’s development through the lens of Stewart Brand’s pace-layering model, talking more about the network’s need to function across multiple layers while maintaining decentralization.

“The value of credible neutrality doesn’t mean treating everything equally; it means making principled choices that protect Ethereum’s integrity at its core,” she said.

She also reaffirmed the foundation’s commitment to what she called the “philosophy of subtraction,” a strategy aimed at preventing centralization by empowering independent teams rather than consolidating control within EF.

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