Aya Miyaguchi: A vision of a decentralized society starting from the classroom

Aya Miyaguchi started her passionate career as a high school teacher in Japan before transitioning into the cryptocurrency industry. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation. Her unique career path and her approach of applying principles cultivated in the educational field to the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors have attracted attention within the community.

From the Classroom to Industry Pioneer

Aya Miyaguchi was originally dedicated to education at a Japanese high school. She was known as a passionate educator skilled in creative teaching methods that fostered students’ autonomous thinking, critical spirit, and curiosity. However, feeling that simply imparting textbook knowledge was insufficient, she sought a broader perspective by going to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in business administration.

During her study abroad in 2011, Aya Miyaguchi encountered Bitcoin. It took her some time to understand this concept as she was not an engineer, but she realized that Bitcoin held potential for financial inclusion and social impact. She was particularly interested in its possible integration with microfinance as a means for women in developing countries to achieve economic independence.

In 2013, her life changed significantly after meeting Jesse Powell, the founder of Kraken. She joined Kraken Japan and later became Managing Director. When the Mt. Gox incident caused turmoil in the Japanese market in 2014, Aya Miyaguchi actively engaged with government agencies and industry groups, contributing to the establishment of the Japan Digital Asset Management Organization(JADA) and helping to shape the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in 2017.

A New Mission at the Ethereum Foundation

In February 2018, Aya Miyaguchi was invited by Vitalik Buterin to become the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation. The two had already known each other since 2013, when Vitalik was promoting the Ethereum white paper in Bitcoin Magazine during his early days.

Aya Miyaguchi was deeply impressed by Ethereum’s potential to realize new governance models, environmental solutions, and educational systems through smart contracts and DApps. Her role at the foundation was not merely administrative but as a “coordinator.” She has promoted the organic growth of the Ethereum ecosystem by connecting multiple stakeholders—overseeing technical development, mediating among rapidly expanding communities, managing and allocating project funds, and raising awareness through education and events.

Ethereum as an “Infinite Garden”

Aya Miyaguchi often uses the metaphor of an “infinite garden.” This concept originates from James P. Carse’s book “Finite and Infinite Games.” In a “finite game,” players aim for victory, whereas in an “infinite game,” players pursue continuation and evolution.

From her perspective, Ethereum is precisely an “infinite game,” and it should contribute not to short-term profits but to the long-term dissemination and development of the ideals of decentralization. Furthermore, she likens the Ethereum community not to a “carefully managed garden” but to a “national park.” Diverse opinions and sometimes radical proposals can serve as sources of new creativity within the ecosystem. With her background in education, Aya Miyaguchi seeks to embody this value of diversity and inclusiveness in organizational management.

She repeatedly emphasizes that decentralization is not a technical challenge but a “shift in mindset.” Considering the current societal penetration of issues like privacy risks, data monopolies, and abuse of power in centralized systems, she believes that blockchain technology’s decentralized philosophy can enable a fundamental reevaluation of social structures.

Discussions on Governance Transparency

In early 2025, Aya Miyaguchi became a focal point of debate within the Ethereum community. Criticisms and support regarding her leadership of the foundation’s management policies were intertwined. Concerns were raised about the transparency of key decisions such as personnel hiring and leadership changes.

In response, Aya Miyaguchi stated that while maintaining consistency with precedents, an ideal approach would be to introduce a community-led decision-making process. However, she also pointed out that internal organizational management within the foundation requires the selection of personnel with global experience and long-standing achievements in the crypto field, and leaving everything to community voting alone is not practical.

Recently, an unofficial chain-on vote conducted by Ethereum community members overwhelmingly supported Danny Ryan, a core researcher of the foundation, as the next leader with 99.98% approval. Joseph Lubin, CEO of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum, also supports the proposal for Danny Ryan to jointly lead with Jérôme de Teissey, from ETH France.

Notably, both Danny Ryan and Vitalik Buterin, the founder, have explicitly recognized Aya Miyaguchi’s leadership. Danny Ryan tweeted, “One of the reasons Ethereum has thrived for so many years is that you cannot talk about its success without mentioning her vital role. All my success is inseparable from her support and guidance.” Vitalik also criticized “mob-like criticism” and discriminatory remarks against Aya Miyaguchi as “pure malice” and has defended her.

Ongoing Commitment to Decentralization Practice

Despite these debates, Aya Miyaguchi’s vision remains unwavering. As reforms progress toward the formal introduction of a board of directors at the Ethereum Foundation, she continues to seek a balance between transparency and community participation.

Her approach, integrating her classroom experience of “respecting students’ autonomy” with her work in building “decentralized systems” in the crypto industry, is rooted not merely in organizational management but in a broader belief in social transformation. Amid the tension between calls for governance improvements and the need for practical organizational management, Aya Miyaguchi aims to demonstrate a way of playing the “infinite game” that seeks harmony between ideals and reality.