The Ergo Foundation
The Ergo Foundation is a community-led, non-profit organization stewarding the development, adoption, and sustainability of the Ergo blockchain ecosystem.
Mission & Values
The Ergo Foundation supports the sustainable, non-breaking development of the Ergo protocol, advocating for adoption, ecosystem growth, and privacy as a fundamental right.
- Champion open-source, decentralized blockchain infrastructure
- Encourage the adoption and use of Ergo and ERG token
- Promote societal benefit and privacy by design
- Support ecosystem expansion and community initiatives
- Uphold transparent, non-profit treasury stewardship
Structure
The Foundation is governed by dedicated multi-signature custodians who vote on treasury allocations in line with its mission. Members include salaried employees, volunteers, bounty contributors, and independent developers. There is no single "core" team — all key groups are open and merit-based.
Members
- Vote on treasury allocation and proposals
- Guide protocol and wallet development
- Oversee exchange listings, bounties, hackathons, marketing
- Manage partnerships and community outreach
Officers & Advisors
- Officers support daily operations: accounting, reporting, events
- Advisors contribute strategic guidance and represent EF externally
- Editorial and marketing team promote community initiatives
Scope of Work
The Foundation's work covers protocol development, community growth, ecosystem bounties, marketing, exchange integrations, developer relations, and much more.
See detailed breakdown in the Spendings section.
Foundation Members
Justin Simpson
13+ years in Investment Banking, in crypto since 2013. Focus: investor relations, Chinese strategy, banking, accounting.
No official EF duties except voting. Currently unpaid.
Mark Glasgow
Community management, dev education, Technical Director for Disabled Students UK CIC.
EF duties: Community advocacy, documentation. Salaried for editorial/community work.
Alexander Slesarenko (morphic)
25+ years in software, applied mathematics, JVM/Sigma developer.
EF: Voting only. Salaried for dev (Sigma), unpaid for EF duties.
Alison Robson (anon_br)
Director of Engineering, Developer Relations, integration & tooling.
Works with community developers (Fleet, Nautilus, Ledger).
Honorary Members
Mohammad Hasan Samadani (mhs_sam)
PhD in CS, security and mining infra pioneer. Incubated multiple Ergo projects.
Voting EF member, incubates innovation (Ergo Raffle, Rosen Bridge).
Joseph Armeanio
Crypto investor since 2013, business developer, public sector advocate.
Focus: business dev, partnerships, research, educational initiatives. Co-founded Rosen.
Officers & Advisors
Anastasiia Sidorova
Treasurer: analytics, accounting, payroll, compliance.
Angie Har
Editorial team lead, events, crypto marketing expert since 2017.
Daniel Friedman
Strategic Advisor: business dev, community, IOHK ambassador.
Editorial & Marketing
- Andy Lowe — Video Editor
- Sean Rice — Editor
- Eva Qing — Chinese Community Management
- Marcelo Roncatti — Designer & Art Director, Estudio Colletivo
DevDAO
Alexander Chepurnoy (kushti)
Blockchain since 2011: smartcontract.com (Chainlink), NXT, IOHK. Author of 20+ academic papers, 15+ years in dev.
Stepped back from EF in Jan 2024 to launch DevDAO and focus on dev. Still facilitates EF-dev communications.
Outgoings
- 2 EF members receive a salary; 2 others get small ERG rewards. Kushti & Justin decline compensation.
- 4 marketing team members compensated (see Officers & Marketing).
- 3 core developers salaried; others via bounties (see DevDAO).
Spendings & Transparency
Full, regularly updated breakdowns of Foundation expenditure are available in the Treasury section.