Ethereum Foundation protocol researcher Francesco D'Amato has left the EF to join Ethlabs, where he will continue protocol R&D with a particular focus on accelerating Ethereum's finality time. D'Amato spent five years at EF Research across a broad swath of protocol work, including MEV, consensus, data availability sampling, and execution layer pricing. His notable contributions include work on PeerDAS, ePBS, and FOCIL, alongside his consensus and finality research.

At Ethlabs, D'Amato will work alongside other former EF colleagues, with the goal of building a team capable of contributing to protocol R&D outside the Foundation itself. He said the move reflects growing confidence that meaningful protocol work can now happen credibly beyond EF. Fast finality remains his stated near-term priority, continuing the direction he's pursued in recent research.

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