This is a living list of open problems identified by various Ethereum Foundation research teams and aligned organizations. It is not exhaustive, but serves as an initial attempt to spotlight areas where academic research can meaningfully advance Ethereum’s development.

Table of Contents

• Econ & Game Theory
• Theoretical and Applied Cryptography
• Consensus/Protocol
• Networking & P2P
• Client Engineering
• Security
• Formal Verification
• Humanities

Econ & Game Theory

Relevant fields include mechanism design, algorithmic game theory, econometrics, market microstructure, consensus mechanisms, learning, finance.

Resources

• We strongly encourage applicants to survey current discussions such as the latest Columbia Cryptoeconomics workshop, in particular the working sessions.
• Another useful resource to surface relevant, current topics of discussion: Directory of work of Robust Incentives Group.

Research Focus Areas

Staking Economics

• Modeling of Stake Supply
  • Studies that attempts to quantify cost structures of SSPs as well as solo stakers, with the overarching goal of assessing how issuance level affects the composition of the staking set.
• Special Priority to Consensus Researchers
  • Quantify the impact of the staking deposit size on security, relevant in research around revised issuance policies.