A month after disbanding its 54-person protocol support team, the Ethereum Foundation is now moving in a different direction: opening a specific position for a protocol security researcher who combines manual audits with artificial intelligence.
This remote position is open to candidates in Europe or globally. The primary duties of the selected candidate include developing fuzzing tools, reviewing code changes during every hard fork, executing comprehensive protocol audits, and coordinating vulnerability disclosures.
The scope of work covers Ethereum’s entire core infrastructure. They will examine the execution layer handling transactions and smart contracts, the consensus layer for validators, technical protocol specifications, client programs, and the peer-to-peer network. This role requires proficiency in programming languages such as Go, Rust, Java, C#, Nim, or Python.
Armed with Last Month’s Bug Discovery
There is a strong reason for this recruitment drive. On July 9, the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Security team tested a group of AI agents designed to work together. As a result, the AI agents detected a real vulnerability in the libp2p gossipsub component at the client consensus peer-to-peer communication layer.
The vulnerability, subsequently registered as CVE-2026-34219, was patched immediately before it could be exploited or publicized. This trial provided new insights for developers.
“AI finding the bug was not the main surprise,” the Foundation’s security team stated. “What was surprising was how little effort was spent finding the vulnerability, and how much effort was required to distinguish a real bug from a finding that only looked like one.”
Wave of Staff Downsizing
This recruitment comes amid a structural shift within the Ethereum Foundation. Last month, they disbanded the Protocol Support team. This decision resulted in the cutting of 54 positions at once, equivalent to 20% of their total workforce.
Several former researchers from the disbanded team immediately took a different path. They founded EthSystems, a new project backed by funding from Bitmine, SharpLink, and Consensys, which is led by Joe Lubin.
Around the same time, leadership also saw a refresh. Pascal Caversaccio was appointed to the Foundation’s board on July 29 for a voluntary one-year term.
The transition from dozens of support staff to a handful of AI researchers highlights the network’s new priorities. The speed of identifying protocol weak points can now be delegated to machines, but humans still hold the final control to filter real threats from mere false alerts.
As reported by crypto.news.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
