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Core developers pass up at least 50% of their market value to maintain software the rest of the industry depends on. Protocol Guild facilitates significant funding to help reduce this gap and retain talent long term.

This report examines compensation data from a majority of Ethereum's core protocol contributors across 11 different orgs, revealing significant gaps between their current compensation and potential market earnings. While many members prioritize working on values-aligned projects, inadequate compensation is a risk to talent retention, the progress of Ethereum's technical roadmap, and long-term credible neutrality. As the leading independent funder of core development, Protocol Guild plays an increasingly important role in addressing this challenge – but there's still significant work to be done. Ecosystem funding entities should understand this as a serious challenge and focus on finding scalable solutions to close the compensation gap.

Takeaways

1. High Demand: Nearly 40% of contributors received final offers from outside employment opportunities in the past year
2. Massive Pay Gap: Current fiat compensation (salary + bonus) is 50-60% below market offers
3. No Upside Exposure: The median contributor earns $0 in equity/tokens as part of their regular employment
4. Critical Lifeline: Protocol Guild funding made up almost 1/3 of the total compensation package for core contributors over the past year
5. Retention Boon: Protocol Guild funding is rated as "very/extremely important" by 59% of members to support their ongoing work

PG member salaries vs. industry offers (sorted by years of experience)