Ethereum Researcher Dankrad Feist Joins Stripe’s Tempo Team
Dankrad Feist, a prominent figure from the Ethereum Foundation, transitions to Tempo, a Stripe project focusing on payment and stablecoin solutions while maintaining his advisory role.
Dankrad Feist, a longtime developer and researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, announced on Friday his transition to Tempo, a payment-focused, layer-1 blockchain project developed by Stripe and Paradigm. Feist emphasized that the values of Tempo and Ethereum are aligned, stating they can effectively complement one another.
Feist will continue as a research adviser at the Ethereum Foundation, contributing to scaling efforts for the layer-1 network, enhancing user experience, and managing blobs, a new feature for temporarily storing data to free up blockspace on Ethereum. He remarked:
“Tempo’s open-source technology can easily integrate back into Ethereum, benefiting the entire ecosystem. Ethereum and Tempo are strongly aligned, as they are built with the same permissionless ideals in mind. I am looking forward to staying involved with the community and continuing to push Ethereum forward.”
The news has elicited mixed responses from the Ethereum community, with many expressing support while some viewed it as the loss of a major contributor amidst significant changes for the ecosystem this year.
Crypto Community Divided Over Stripe’s Tempo
Members of the crypto community appear divided over the necessity of the Tempo blockchain. Joe Petrich, the head of engineering at Courtyard, criticized the announcement from Patrick Collison, the CEO of Stripe, stating:
“No one wants another chain,” indicating a general discontent with the proliferation of new chains rather than enhancing existing networks.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Devansh Mehta also questioned the choice to create Tempo as a standalone blockchain, suggesting it might be more beneficial to have it function as a layer-2 scaling solution on Ethereum.
The ongoing debate underscores a growing concern regarding layer-1 chains that build their own validator sets, which can lead to centralization issues and legal liabilities. This discussion arises amid heightened tensions between Ethereum and various layer-2 solutions, some of which are seen as detrimental to Ethereum’s base layer revenues and price stability.
