Polygon Basis 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, traders, and finally Vitalik Buterin himself. The alternate, which unfolded on X over the previous 10 hours, facilities on whether or not the Ethereum Basis (EF) adequately helps its builders, how Layer-2 tasks 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 Basis A ‘Shitshow’?
“Learn this from Peter and realized that it’s time for me to additionally converse 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, stated his long-standing ethical loyalty to Ethereum has come at private and company price: “Although I/we by no means acquired any direct assist from the EF or the Ethereum CT group — in reality, the reverse. However 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 a complete 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 stated buddies, together with AkshayBD (Chief Advertising Officer of the Solana Basis 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 conduct” 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 could in all probability be valued 2–5× larger than it’s at present,” 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-about 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” whilst “Polygon itself is just not Ethereum. Thoughts-boggling.”
Regardless of the frustration, Nailwal stated he intends to attempt as soon as extra to realign technical and social consensus round scaling: “I’m going to present this a remaining push which may simply revive your complete L2 narrative. Simply 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. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless the one system that really 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. Evaluating his expertise to Fantom’s Sonic ecosystem, he stated 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 ought to be paying its builders like skilled athletes.[…] The Ethereum basis is mainly paying individuals to depart. High builders ought to be paid like Professional Athletes.”
Vitalik Buterin Reacts
Buterin responded a number of hours later with an unusually private observe 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 invaluable 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 staff”), infrastructure for proof aggregation by way of AggLayer, and assist for “functions which have wanted excessive ranges of scalability.”
On the central technical query — whether or not Polygon can and may harden its safety ensures with trendy 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 troublesome to be each one of the best L2 and one of the best ZK staff, the 2 are very totally different talent 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 stated many L2 groups “are very shocked once I inform them the current numbers… The newest ZK-EVMs, and reside tasks 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.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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