Ethereum Foundation (EF) researcher Francesco D’Amato (fradamt) announced that he is leaving the EF and joining the newly established protocol research and development organization, Ethlabs. D’Amato worked at the EF for 5 years and contributed to multiple core research areas, including MEV, consensus mechanisms, data availability sampling (DAS), and execution layer pricing. He said this is the first time he has seen core Ethereum protocol research have the opportunity to be continuously advanced outside the EF, adding that in the future he will continue to focus on pushing work such as faster finality for Ethereum.