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Field Notes on How Ethereum Decides Insights, mechanisms, and coordination scaffolds for Ethereum’s next chapter.
This document summarizes the strategic intent, design process, and key insights of Governance Games @ Edge Esmeralda 2025—tracing narrative foundations, day-to-day highlights, thematic threads, throughputs + Butter’s commitment to carrying the work forward with the Ethereum Growth CF-O proposal.
A companion visual (embedded below) maps the information flow from origin to endpoint—zoom in or out and toggle freely to explore how each stage connects ↴
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https://link.excalidraw.com/readonly/vAiPBYGzKPBY9b3HTVAN
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Ethereum has a scaling problem—rooted in coordination.
As protocol upgrades accelerate and capital accumulates, the ecosystem still lacks scalable mechanisms to align actors, surface priorities, and direct resources toward what matters most.
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How is governance currently limiting the ecosystem's growth potential?
| Credible Neutrality & Resource Constraints | The Ethereum Foundation’s limited mandate and resourcing restrict its ability to actively steer or support growth across the ecosystem. |
|---|---|
| Fragmented Coordination | Without shared priorities across L1 and L2 actors, duplication, blind spots, and misalignment persist. |
| Funding Mismatches | Critical infra remains underfunded while billions sit idle in DAO treasuries—held back by misaligned incentives and a lack of capital coordination. |
| Scalability Limits & Evaluation Gaps | Current structures can’t support fast, transparent decisions, and weak feedback loops prevent clarity on what’s worth funding or who’s delivering impact. |
The Governance Games concept was born from Butter's exploration of Conditional Funding Markets (CFMs) as scalable alternatives to grants and retro funding—and emerged in response to ecosystem-wide frustrations around siloed mech design conversations & a lack of practical, cross-stakeholder experimentation in existing coordination venues.
These gaps pointed toward the need for a new format:
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The driving question behind GG @ Edge Esmeralda ↴ How do we scale Ethereum—intentionally, collectively, and credibly?
CLICK HERE to view the full agenda.
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Vaughn Mckenzie Landell Co-Founder x CEO
Alex Hajjar Co-Founder x CTO
LoBa Partnerships & Events
Bill Grants
Distbit Research
Phlexie Engineering
Augustin Engineering
Jason Chaskin Ethereum Foundation (Ecosystem Intelligence)
Peter Vecchiarelli Protocol Guild
Yiling Chen Harvard University
Robin Hanson George Mason University
Connor McCormick Network Goods Institute
Alex Netto Blockful
Ven Gist Metagov
Jesse Katz Maitri Network
Petra Precog Market
Raphael Spannocchi StableLab
Jeff Strnad Stanford Law School
Bo Waggoner CU Boulder
Maneesha Papireddygari CU Boulder