{"id":37113,"date":"2025-10-22T03:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=37113"},"modified":"2025-10-22T03:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T03:24:06","slug":"polygons-nailwal-bashes-the-ethereum-community-buterin-steps-in-with-surprising-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=37113","title":{"rendered":"Polygon\u2019s Nailwal Bashes the Ethereum Community, Buterin Steps In With Surprising Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><\/p>\n<p>Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stepped in following public remarks from Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, as he attempted to provide an acknowledgment of both the project and its leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Nailwal expressed frustration with Ethereum&#8217;s community, but said he remained loyal, even as he faced criticism over Polygon&#8217;s classification.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inside-ethereum-power-struggles\">Inside Ethereum Power Struggles<\/h2>\n<p>In response, Buterin <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VitalikButerin\/status\/1980453161862414760\">highlighted<\/a> the contributions of Polygon and Nailwal personally, describing the project as more than a &#8220;not just boring finance app.&#8221; He gave a shoutout to Polygon&#8217;s Layer 2 work and said that it has made Ethereum stronger.<\/p>\n<p>The Ethereum co-founder&#8217;s acknowledgment came amid Nailwal&#8217;s candid reflections about the social and market <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/polygons-zkevm-never-adopted-blobs-now-running-at-a-1m-annual-loss-researcher-claims\/\">pressures<\/a> surrounding Polygon. Nailwal <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sandeepnailwal\/status\/1980367655937929392\">spoke<\/a> about the difficulty of categorizing Polygon as a Layer 1 or Layer 2, and pointed out how such distinctions influence market perception and valuation.<\/p>\n<p>He described being called out by stakeholders for not labeling Polygon a Layer 1, despite the chain&#8217;s deep integration with Ethereum. Nailwal also alluded to moments of personal conflict, while noting that navigating the Ethereum community had felt like a &#8220;shit show&#8221; at times, while simultaneously expressing respect for Buterin as someone he &#8220;looked up to as an ideal for how things should be built in this world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"ethereum-elite-under-fire\">Ethereum Elite Under Fire<\/h2>\n<p>Nailwal&#8217;s response comes after Ethereum core developer P\u00e9ter Szil\u00e1gyi <a href=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/karalabe\/a2bc53436f29e0711fe680d59e180f6c\">published<\/a> a lengthy letter he first shared privately with Ethereum Foundation (EF) leadership in May 2024. In it, Szil\u00e1gyi outlined long-standing frustrations with governance, compensation, and the emergence of an Ethereum &#8220;elite&#8221; that ultimately answers to Buterin. He described feeling like a &#8220;useful fool,&#8221; caught between loyalty to Ethereum and personal dissatisfaction, and criticized the perceived dissonance between public portrayals of his leadership role and how responsibilities were handled internally.<\/p>\n<p>Szil\u00e1gyi highlighted compensation issues and mentioned that underpayment created incentives for top contributors to explore opportunities elsewhere, which ended up opening space for concentrated influence among high-profile insiders. While he said that Ethereum remains a powerful protocol, these structural and social dynamics create ongoing challenges for long-term contributors navigating recognition, opportunity, and principle within the network.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Do I find Ethereum fixable? No, not really. I don&#8217;t see how any of this can be reversed. I feel the Foundation blew allegiance to it beyond reversal. I feel Vitalik &#8211; with all his good intents &#8211; created the ruling elite who will never relinquish control anymore, so you either play ball or you get sidelined (at least they pay well apparently). As for Geth, I feel we are considered a problem in the grand scheme of things in Ethereum &#8211; myself at the centre of that problem &#8211; so I don&#8217;t really see a bright future for myself with my pushbacks against the issues I see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/polygons-nailwal-bashes-the-ethereum-community-buterin-steps-in-with-surprising-praise\/\">Polygon&#8217;s Nailwal Bashes the Ethereum Community, Buterin Steps In With Surprising Praise<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/polygons-nailwal-bashes-the-ethereum-community-buterin-steps-in-with-surprising-praise\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stepped in following public remarks from Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, as he attempted to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crypto","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}