Ethereum In Revolt: Polygon’s Nailwal Turns On The Foundation

Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal has publicly questioned his “loyalty towards Ethereum,” igniting a uncommon, unvarnished bout of soul-searching throughout the ecosystem that drew quick responses from core contributors, buyers, and finally Vitalik Buterin himself. The trade, which unfolded on X over the previous 10 hours, facilities on whether or not the Ethereum Foundation (EF) adequately helps its builders, how Layer-2 initiatives are acknowledged inside Ethereum’s narrative and market “beta,” and whether or not the group’s tradition has drifted from its unique beliefs.

Is The Ethereum Foundation A ‘Shitshow’?

“Read this from Peter and realized that it’s time for me to additionally communicate up,” Nailwal wrote, referencing core developer Péter Szilágyi’s determination on October 19 to publish a letter he says he despatched to EF management roughly 18 months in the past. Nailwal, who credit Ethereum and Buterin as his entry level and inspiration, mentioned his long-standing ethical loyalty to Ethereum has come at private and company value: “Though I/we by no means acquired any direct assist from the EF or the Ethereum CT group — in truth, the reverse. But I’ve all the time felt ethical loyalty in direction of Ethereum even when [it] prices me billions of {dollars} in Polygon’s valuation maybe.”

Nailwal’s critique is each cultural and monetary. “The Ethereum group as an entire has been a shit present for fairly a while,” he wrote, including that recurring public crises power main contributors to “query what they’re even doing right here.” He mentioned pals, together with AkshayBD (Chief Marketing Officer of the Solana Foundation and a co-founder of SuperteamDAO), have urged him to declare Polygon an L1 and “stroll away from this circus,” and claimed the group’s “socialistic habits” has trolled Polygon regardless of its contributions “due to some arbitrary ‘technical definition.’”

He argued that market construction punishes Polygon for refusing the L1 label: “It’s extensively believed that if Polygon ever determined to name itself an L1, it will most likely be valued 2–5× larger than it’s right this moment,” pointing to a now-widely mentioned comparability: “Like give it some thought, Hedera Hashgraph an L1 is valued larger than Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and Scroll mixed.”

The classification dispute, in Nailwal’s telling, has real-world penalties for recognition and index inclusion. He insisted “Polygon PoS successfully hinged on Ethereum, whereas Katana, XLayer, and dozens of different chains in Polygon’s ecosystem are true L2s,” but “the Ethereum group ensures Polygon is rarely thought of an L2 and is rarely included within the markets’ perceived Ethereum Beta.” He added {that a} “outstanding Polygon Stakeholder” scolded him as a result of he “can’t get Polygon on GrowthPie, which refuses to record the Polygon chain,” and contrasted how Polymarket’s success is credited to “Ethereum” at the same time as “Polygon itself shouldn’t be Ethereum. Mind-boggling.”

Despite the frustration, Nailwal mentioned he intends to strive as soon as extra to realign technical and social consensus round scaling: “I’m going to offer this a last push that may simply revive your complete L2 narrative. Just bear with me for just a few extra weeks.” He concluded with a professional protection of the messiness: “Ethereum is a democracy — and in any democracy, individuals on all sides find yourself disgruntled. But it’s nonetheless the one system that actually works in the long term.”

The thread drew quick reactions from outstanding builders. Andre Cronje — who says he burned “over 700 ETH on deployments and ETH infra” throughout his Ethereum years — questioned EF’s assist priorities outright. “I attempted contacting EF, by no means a response, no BD outreach, no grants, 0 assist, not even a retweet,” Cronje wrote. Comparing his expertise to Fantom’s Sonic ecosystem, he mentioned he was “confused” to see groups there obtain BD assist, grants, TVL, audits and advertising, and requested: “If it isn’t the core builders, Peter & geth, and it isn’t the loudest L2 supporters (Sandeep and Polygon), the place is it going?”

Tommy Shaughnessy of Delphi Ventures framed the issue as under-compensation of irreplaceable expertise. “The Ethereum basis needs to be paying its builders like skilled athletes.[…] The Ethereum basis is principally paying individuals to go away. Top builders needs to be paid like Pro Athletes.”

Vitalik Buterin Reacts

Buterin responded a number of hours later with an unusually private be aware of appreciation for each Nailwal and Polygon’s contributions, whereas additionally providing a technical path ahead. “I actually respect each @sandeepnailwal’s private contributions and @0xPolygon’s immensely helpful position within the ethereum ecosystem,” he wrote, name-checking Polygon’s position internet hosting Polymarket, its early and resource-intensive bets on ZK-EVM proving (“bringing in Jordi Baylina’s group”), infrastructure for proof aggregation by way of AggLayer, and assist for “purposes which have wanted high ranges of scalability.”

On the central technical query — whether or not Polygon can and may harden its safety ensures with fashionable zero-knowledge proofs — Buterin argued that the market has developed towards a separation of considerations between L2 operators and ZK-prover specialists.

“It’s very tough to be each the perfect L2 and the perfect ZK group, the 2 are very totally different ability units,” he wrote, citing standalone ZK suppliers and urging Polygon to “decide up off the shelf ZK tech that has now gotten fairly good and apply it to the PoS chain to get full stage 1 and later stage 2 ensures from the ethereum L1.”

He emphasised how far the economics have moved: “Proving prices are round $0.0001/tx,” and mentioned many L2 groups “are very stunned after I inform them the current numbers… The newest ZK-EVMs, and dwell initiatives like @Lighter_xyz, present that that is false” with respect to the concept that ZK is unviable at hyperscale.

At press time, ETH traded at $3,873.