An Ethereum core developer has raised concerns about the growing influence of venture capital firm Paradigm within the Ethereum ecosystem, warning that their influence “within Ethereum could become a relevant tail risk for the ecosystem.”
The developer, known as “Fede’s intern” on X, highlighted Paradigm’s strategic positioning across multiple fronts, including hiring top researchers, funding critical open-source libraries, and launching Tempo, a competing layer-1 blockchain with Stripe.
The concerns intensified following the departure of longtime Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist to Tempo, which raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation from traditional finance firms.
As of March this year, Paradigm manages $12.7 billion in assets. It has emerged as the top-performing crypto venture capital firm over the past year with an 11.80% performance metric, according to Kaito AI.
The firm has invested heavily in Ethereum infrastructure, including leading a $40 million funding round for Etherealize and backing Reth, a Rust-based execution client.
Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang was appointed CEO of Tempo while retaining his role at the firm, creating what some view as potential “conflicts of interest”.
The developer acknowledged Paradigm’s contributions to the community but emphasized “the sole objective of venture funds is to maximize returns for their LPs.”
He noted that after Paradigm’s failed FTX investment, “they removed most references to crypto and pivoted heavily toward AI,” as evidence of corporate priorities potentially misaligning with Ethereum’s long-term vision.
In response, his team created Ethrex, an alternative Rust execution client, to reduce dependency on Paradigm-controlled infrastructure.
Growing Open-Source Co-option Fears
Tempo has assembled a significant team of Ethereum talent, including Dankrad Feist, who contributed to the network for seven years as a researcher focused on zero-knowledge proofs and scalability solutions.
The blockchain announced its $500 million funding round from Greenoaks and Thrive on the same day as Feist’s departure announcement.
Known equity holders include Stripe, Paradigm, Greenoaks, SV Angel, Thrive, Ribbit, and Sequoia, with no community ownership stake disclosed.
Tempo positions itself as a high-performance layer-1 designed for stablecoin issuance and large bank-to-bank payments, capable of running Ethereum-compatible code without relying on Ethereum itself.
Team members claim that the project will expand the market for all cryptocurrencies and ultimately benefit Ethereum, although critics remain skeptical.
One analyst noted that Tempo exists to intercept trillions of dollars in predicted stablecoin flows onto a privately owned blockchain, rather than Ethereum’s open infrastructure.
The recruitment wave follows Paradigm’s January call for Ethereum to accelerate protocol upgrades and adopt a more agile innovation approach.
The firm argued that Ethereum implements only one major protocol change per year, despite having vast resources, and urged developments such as native rollups and improved wallet infrastructure.
Ethereum layer-2 executives agreed to prioritize such enhancements on the same day as Paradigm’s blog post was published.
Corporate Influence Raises Governance and Decentralization Questions
The Ethereum core developer expressed concern that “when corporations gain too much legibility and influence over open source projects, priorities start to drift away from the community’s long term vision and toward corporate incentives.”
He emphasized that Bitcoin and Ethereum remain “unique because they represent philosophical and political movements larger than any corporation.”
The developer warned of “hidden costs and risks of governance lock in disguised as freedom,” particularly as Rust becomes dominant for critical infrastructure with zero-knowledge proofs entering layer-1.
Paradigm has maintained board representation at Stripe through Matt Huang while simultaneously investing in competing infrastructure and hiring Ethereum’s top talent.
The firm previously incubated projects like Foundry and Artemis, but Tempo represents a new level of involvement with a major fintech player.
He argues that this creates governance lock-in risks disguised as freedom, particularly as Rust becomes dominant for critical infrastructure, with zero-knowledge proofs entering layer 1.
The concerns emerge as Ethereum pursues greater privacy and decentralization.
Co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently published research on GKR, a cryptographic technique that can accelerate Ethereum verification.
Meanwhile, the Foundation also launched a 47-member Privacy Cluster aimed at making the network private by default.
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