Writer: Zen, PANews
A long-hidden internal letter has as soon as once more put the Ethereum Foundation (EF) in the highlight.
On October 20, Péter Szilágyi, a former Ethereum core developer and fundamental maintainer of the Geth consumer, printed a letter to the management of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) in Could final 12 months, which as soon as once more aroused widespread criticism of EF in the neighborhood.
After Péter ignited the criticism of EF, Polygon co-founder and Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwa and Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje additionally expressed dissatisfaction, disappointment, and doubt. After Sandeep printed a prolonged article, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin additionally responded and “appeased” him with a publish.
Péter Szilágyi: Counting the Ethereum Foundation’s “Three Sins”
As a veteran Ethereum core developer, Péter Szilágyi’s feud with EF will not be the first time it has been made public. In June of this 12 months, Péter Szilágyi and EF formally parted methods.
Péter claims he was provided roughly $5 million to spin off Geth, Ethereum’s hottest execution layer consumer, from EF into a non-public firm, however he declined the supply. He additionally claims to have found that EF was secretly funding another Geth staff, deliberately undermining and marginalizing the unique one. Péter claims he was fired shortly after discovering this.
On this open letter, Péter reveals additional particulars of EF’s exploitation. He claims that the “chief” persona he was given at EF was merely “perceived management,” a logo of various views in public, however held no actual energy in non-public decision-making. When he publicly opposed highly effective figures or conflicts of curiosity, he broken each his repute and that of Geth, whereas additionally failing to alter course.
In Péter’s view, the major purpose for Ethereum’s failure is that, regardless of its lofty ambitions, it was simply swayed by the attract of cash and deserted its rules with out hesitation. “I am glad you constructed an empire for us. Now step apart and let those that could make us cash lead us,” he wrote, expressing his disappointment with the money-driven tradition on social media.
On the different hand, EF is overly stingy with its staff, chronically suppressing salaries. Péter reported that his whole pre-tax compensation for his first six years at EF (2015-2021) was $625,000, with zero bonuses. This degree of wage is often simply entry-level at main US corporations and in high-paying cities. In the meantime, ETH’s market capitalization has soared from zero to $450 billion. Péter claims that the underpaid “employee” scenario at EF has improved in the previous two years. This may increasingly even be associated to the Protocol Guild, a funder of Ethereum core builders established in 2022 to handle gaps in developer compensation.
Lastly, he believes that Ethereum has fashioned a “prime ruling elite” round Vitalik – Vitalik’s consideration, donations and investments virtually decide which tasks will succeed. Consequently, many new tasks bypass public choices and as a substitute try for the help or advisors of the 5 to 10 core opinion leaders and the 1 to three VCs behind them. From the media to the analysis community, they “sing in unison” with one another, and the alternatives for ecological growth are utterly dominated by the relationship community.
Péter believes that the above-mentioned issues of EF are already terminal and troublesome to reverse: the basis has exhausted the neighborhood’s loyalty to it, and the elite circle round Vitalik won’t hand over energy.
Persevering with to ferment: Sandeep’s disappointment and AC’s questioning
After forwarding Peter’s lengthy publish, Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwa additionally took the alternative to precise his dissatisfaction with EF and the neighborhood.
Sandeep expressed his doubts about his loyalty to Ethereum, believing it was price addressing publicly. Much like core builders like Péter Szilágyi, who’ve made important contributions to Ethereum, Sandeep believes that Polygon has made important infrastructure and ecosystem contributions to Ethereum, but has lengthy lacked recognition and help from Ethereum Foundation and its core neighborhood. As a substitute, it has been marginalized and questioned as a real Ethereum Layer 2.
Sandeep defined that Polygon, out of loyalty, has lengthy insisted on positioning itself as Ethereum’s Layer 2, fairly than as an unbiased Layer 1. This has considerably compromised Polygon’s narrative and prevented it from incomes the recognition premium it deserves from the ecosystem. He famous that if Polygon had shifted to a Layer 1 narrative, its valuation might have elevated by two to 5 instances.
“The Ethereum neighborhood must take a critical have a look at itself,” Sandeep additionally criticized the Ethereum neighborhood, mentioning that Ethereum contributors like Péter Szilágyi had been compelled to query and even remorse their loyalty to Ethereum, and the neighborhood additionally “made an indelible contribution.”
Taking benefit of this controversy, Yearn and Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje (AC) instantly printed a press release questioning the place EF’s funding went.
AC said that he has been constructing on Ethereum for years, burning over 700 ETH on infrastructure deployment alone. Nonetheless, repeated makes an attempt to contact EF have yielded no response, with “no enterprise connections, no funding, no help, not even a retweet.” He questioned: If EF would not help core purchasers/builders, nor does it help main L2s, then who is definitely receiving the funding?
It is price noting that, taking benefit of the Ethereum frenzy, Solana co-founders Toly and Raj used the feedback sections of AC and Sandeep, respectively, to recruit them to affix the Solana ecosystem. Somebody identified to Raj a information report wherein Sandeep described Solana as having no future, to which Raj merely replied, “All the pieces is forgivable.”
Vitalik responded: To clear Sandeep’s title, solely speak about product expertise
Confronted with the overwhelming public opinion, Vitalik Buterin responded to Sandeep’s remarks.
Vitalik first positively affirmed the long-term contributions of Sandeep and Polygon, together with internet hosting Polymarket, one of the few actually “non-pure monetary” widespread dApps with constructive externalities for society, internet hosting many purposes with excessive scalability necessities, and investing closely in ZK-EVM in the early days to advertise the zero-knowledge proof ecosystem.
Vitalik additionally praised Sandeep, the chief who pushed for this initiative, for his ethical compliments. He talked about that after he donated SHIB to the Indian anti-epidemic fund, Sandeep voluntarily “returned” roughly $190 million to Vitalik to make use of for the Balvi Foundation’s open-source analysis venture on combating airborne pathogens. This, Vitalik believed, was essential, accelerating related public well being progress.
Other than this, Vitalik didn’t reply to any EF-related matters, however as a substitute centered on merchandise and expertise.
He stated he understood that Polygon needed to undertake the most troublesome exploration interval in the early days, however now the ecosystem has fashioned a sample of “L2 staff” and “ZK staff” every specializing in their very own areas. He personally hopes that Polygon can instantly undertake mature, ready-made ZK expertise on the PoS chain as quickly as doable, in order to acquire the stronger safety assure of Ethereum L1.
Vitalik’s response felt like a exact “technical appeasement”—he affirmed the worth of contributors whereas deftly avoiding core questions on EF’s governance construction and useful resource allocation. This may increasingly quickly calm Sandeep’s private feelings, however it can hardly quench the deeper issues ignited by this controversy.
This controversy, sparked by an outdated letter, finally grew to become a mirror, reflecting the governance paradox that Ethereum should face after its huge success: the way to discover a new stability between scale and energy, beliefs and actuality.
“Let’s wait and see what the future holds,” Peter wrote at the finish of his letter. This assertion isn’t only a private sentiment; it’s a poignant query about the future of the complete Ethereum ecosystem.
