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 fast responses from core contributors, buyers, and finally Vitalik Buterin himself. The change, 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 authentic beliefs.
Is The Ethereum Basis A ‘Shitshow’?
“Learn this from Peter and realized that it’s time for me to additionally communicate up,” Nailwal wrote, referencing core developer Péter Szilágyi’s choice 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 price: “Although I/we by no means received any direct assist from the EF or the Ethereum CT group — the truth is, the reverse. However I’ve at all times 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 drive main contributors to “query what they’re even doing right here.” He mentioned mates, together with AkshayBD (Chief Advertising and marketing 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 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 broadly believed that if Polygon ever determined to name itself an L1, it could in all probability be valued 2–5× increased than it’s in the present day,” pointing to a now-widely mentioned comparability: “Like give it some thought, Hedera Hashgraph an L1 is valued increased 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 isn’t thought-about an L2 and isn’t 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 checklist the Polygon chain,” and contrasted how Polymarket’s success is credited to “Ethereum” whilst “Polygon itself will not be Ethereum. Thoughts-boggling.”
Regardless of the frustration, Nailwal mentioned he intends to attempt as soon as extra to realign technical and social consensus round scaling: “I’m going to provide this a last push which may simply revive your entire 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. However it’s nonetheless the one system that really works in the long term.”
The thread drew fast 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 mentioned he was “confused” to see groups there obtain BD assist, grants, TVL, audits and advertising and marketing, 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 principally paying individuals to go away. High builders ought to be paid like Professional Athletes.”
Vitalik Buterin Reacts
Buterin responded a number of hours later with an unusually private word of appreciation for each Nailwal and Polygon’s contributions, whereas additionally providing a technical path ahead. “I actually recognize each @sandeepnailwal’s private contributions and @0xPolygon’s immensely worthwhile 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 crew”), infrastructure for proof aggregation through AggLayer, and assist for “purposes 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 advanced towards a separation of considerations between L2 operators and ZK-prover specialists.
“It’s very tough to be each the very best L2 and the very best ZK crew, the 2 are very completely different talent units,” he wrote, citing standalone ZK suppliers and urging Polygon to “choose 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 once I inform them the current numbers… The newest ZK-EVMs, and dwell 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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