So shocking, I heard the Ethereum Foundation pays low salaries, but I didn’t expect them to be *this* low. Peter, the former lead of Geth (Ethereum’s largest client), shared that in 6 years, he only earned $625k in salary, which averages out to just over $100k per year (and that’s *before* taxes). For North American developers—especially top-tier, veteran-level ones in the crypto industry—this is way below the standard. Even many senior employees (not even executives) at some Asian exchanges can earn this amount just from their base salary. Also, it’s totally understandable why Justin and Dankrad were doing consulting gigs on the side to make extra money—their massive reputation doesn’t match their income. It’s only natural for them to look for other opportunities (like Dankrad joining Tempo). Peter also mentioned some frustrating realities, including how “within EF, there’s a small circle of 5–10 ‘Ethereum thought leaders’ close to Vitalik. If a project team hires a few of these researchers as consultants, they can solve their problems.” So many mixed feelings. Honestly, every big organization has these “echo chamber” groups that form around leadership. Ethereum is still relatively transparent and egalitarian as a protocol, but even it isn’t immune to this. All we can do is hope Ethereum keeps getting better.