Ethereum Protocol Fellowship Cohort 5 Recap

TL;DR: The EPF successfully concluded the fifth cohort, Study Group 2025 and is preparing for cohort six (EPF6). Applications will be announced soon, keep an eye on the EF blog! In the meantime, get ready by enhancing your Ethereum protocol knowledge at EPF.wiki and sign up for the newsletter to get notified about announcements.

The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship completed its fifth cohort, culminating with EPF Day at Devcon in Bangkok. Its completion marked 5 months of immersive learning, research and contribution to the Ethereum core ecosystem from a group of talented and dedicated fellows. Client devs and researchers welcomed new contributors, some of which stayed working with them long-term.

Additionally, the second iteration of the Protocol Study Group concluded after 2 months of intensive learning about the core protocol.

To learn more about the EPF program, take a look at some of the past posts and cohort repositories.

What's new

With each cohort, we gather feedback and learn more about how to improve the experience for both fellows and Ethereum devs. EPF5 brought a few notable changes resulting in a very productive cohort.

Prior to EPF5, we organized the first Protocol Study Group which ran for 10 weeks leading to EPF5. Over those 10 weeks, students participated in a curriculum designed to educate about all areas of the protocol. This led to a much smoother onboarding, as many fellows came ready for EPF with more knowledge and resources.

The other major change to EPF5 was the duration, extended from 4 to 5 months, giving fellows an additional month to refine their projects and aim for bigger scopes.

Similarly to past cohorts, we hosted EPF Day at Devcon to close out the cohort. However for EPF5, we also organized an additional EPF Day near the beginning of the cohort during EthCC in Brussels. This event gave fellows an opportunity to meet each other and mentors and present the projects they will work on through the cohort.

EPF5 Stats

Applications for the fifth cohort opened in May 2024. After reviewing over 300 applications, 20 participants were awarded initial stipends to participate in the fellowship working on core R&D projects. Because the program is open, an additional 25 participants joined permissionlessly. After the 5-month period and over 500 weekly updates, we concluded the cohort with 30 active fellows at EPF Day in Bangkok.

EPF5 Projects

Altogether, fellows proposed and contributed to 30 projects, with mentors from various client and research teams, including Grandine, Prysm, Lighthouse, Besu, Nimbus, Nethermind, Geth, Teku, RIG, and Reth. These projects not only represent a valuable learning experience but meaningful contributions to the Ethereum core ecosystem. You can learn more about project outcomes in final reports and presentation recordings from EPF Day.

All of the program resources can be found in the EPF5 repository, with the majority of the activity in /development updates and proposals in /projects. As an active part of Ethereum's open research, all EPF projects and resources are free and open-source.

Protocol Study Group Continues

The Protocol Study Group is back for 2025! With a renewed format, beginning with a 2 week intensive convering the existing resources and followed by 6 additional weeks of new lectures from core developers. Combined, we have created even more comprehensive curriculum with dedicated focus on each part of the execution and consensus layer.

This is not just a pre-cursor program to the EPF but a comprehensive curriculum for anyone wanting to learn more about Ethereum's core protocol. Materials and recordings from Study Group sessions are always available as a structured learning experience, together with a collaborative wiki built by independent contributors. Whether you are getting ready for the fellowship or just want to learn about some aspect of Ethereum, epf.wiki contains all resources you need.

Next Cohort Soon™️

We are gearing up for the sixth cohort of the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. For anyone interested in diving into Ethereum core development, stay tuned for the application announcement later in April with a cohort starting in June. To get notified, join the EPF mailing list.

Meanwhile, you can get ready by ensuring a foundational understanding of the Ethereum protocol (epf.wiki and previous cohorts are a great place to start), publically contributing to open-source projects, especially existing projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, and giving some thought to the type of project you may like to work on.