‘Ethereum Foundation believes in Defipunk’, says org as it forms team to support protocol development

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is dedicating resources to decentralized finance (DeFi) by forming a new DeFi unit under its App Relations team to support new protocol development. Key hires include Charles St. Louis and Ivan (ivangbi) as DeFi Protocol Specialist and DeFi Coordinator, respectively. The EF explicitly stated its vision for DeFi must be permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open source, advocating for "DeFipunk"—finance that could only exist on Ethereum, not just marginally better TradFi. This new team will support speculative developments like user-controlled AI and ZK-powered lending, collaborate with the Privacy Cluster, and create clear channels for connecting with DeFi teams and sharing updates. This initiative is part of the EF's broader reorganization efforts to effectively allocate resources.

(Source：The Block)