MetaMask Co-founder Dan Finlay announces departure from Consensys

Dan Finlay, co-founder and longtime developer of MetaMask, announced Wednesday that it is his last day at Consensys.

In a post on social media platform X, Finlay cited burnout after spending a decade at Consensys building the crypto wallet, and said he plans to spend time with his family.

"Wishing the team the best — they have an amazing road ahead of them," Finlay wrote.

Created in 2016 by Finlay and Aaron Davis under Consensys, MetaMask quickly became a prominent Ethereum-based crypto wallet accessible through desktop browsers and mobile devices.

MetaMask has since expanded to non-EVM-compatible networks such as Bitcoin and Tron, and integrated prediction markets and tokenized stocks to the platform. It also launched its own payment card through a partnership with Mastercard, which rewards users with cashback paid out in native mUSD stablecoin. 

Advanced Permissions

In a follow-up post on X, Finlay highlighted the launch of Advanced Permissions (ERC-7715), which allows dApps to request fine-grained permissions from a MetaMask user to execute transactions on their behalf. This effectively eliminates the need for users to approve every transaction, which would be especially useful for highly interactive applications.

"For example, a user can grant your dapp permission to spend 10 USDC per day to buy ETH over the course of a month," the developer document said. "Once the permission is granted, your dapp can use the allocated 10 USDC each day to purchase ETH directly from the MetaMask user's account."

In a reply to Finlay, embattled Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm said this new feature is "extremely important."

"Finally, the crypto market can offer something everyone has envied about Visa and Mastercard — recurring payment systems, which crypto hasn't had," Storm wrote.