Polygon founder criticizes Ethereum! Vitalik Buterin urgently steps in to "put out the fire," Solana co-founder offers an olive branch.

Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, publicly questioned his loyalty to the Ethereum ecosystem, criticizing the lack of support from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) or the community for his long-term contributions, and pointed out that this “moral loyalty” may have cost Polygon billions of dollars in valuation. At the same time, former Geth chief developer Péter Szilágyi revealed that his six-year salary was only $625,000, further exposing the issue of Ethereum core developers' compensation being significantly below market standards. The controversy quickly escalated, with the co-founder of Solana publicly extending an olive branch, raising strong doubts about the Ethereum Foundation's fund management and talent retention strategies.

Polygon Founder Criticizes Ethereum: Loyalty Has Its Price, Could Reshape L1/L2 Narrative

· The cost of questioning loyalty: Nailwal explicitly stated that he has begun to “question loyalty to Ethereum,” despite Polygon building important infrastructure for network scaling and hosting successful applications like Polymarket. He pointed out that he and his team have never received direct support from the EF or the Ethereum community, and quite the opposite, while this moral loyalty may have cost Polygon “tens of billions in valuation.”

· Impact of L2 identity disputes on valuation: The core pain point raised by Nailwal is that the Ethereum community refuses to classify Polygon PoS as Layer 2, even though its ecosystem already includes true L2 solutions like Katana and XLayer. This market perception issue results in Polygon being valued lower than competitors like Hedera Hashgraph. He cited a friend's suggestion that if Polygon announced itself as Layer 1, its valuation could increase by 2 to 5 times.

· Support from Polygon Labs CEO: Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, emphasized that Polygon PoS is a “customer” of Ethereum, paying significant fees to the network. He believes the Ethereum Foundation should “embrace” rather than “exclude” these important contributors. Nailwal promised to launch a “final effort in the coming weeks that could potentially revitalize the entire L2 narrative,” but also acknowledged that Ethereum's operating model is akin to a democratic system, where ultimately all parties may feel dissatisfied.

Core Developer Compensation Crisis: Concerns Over Foundation Financial Management and Talent Drain

· Former Geth lead reveals low compensation: In a letter to the EF leadership in May 2024, former Geth chief developer Péter Szilágyi disclosed that his total pre-tax compensation during his six years managing the Ethereum main execution client was only $625,000, with no benefits, raises, or incentives. He candidly stated that working at the foundation was “a bad financial decision.”

· V God's compensation philosophy is being questioned: Szilágyi warns that this situation is breeding a perfect breeding ground for “distorted incentives, conflicts of interest, and ultimately, capture of agreements.” He also cited Vitalik Buterin (V God) on the concept of compensation: “If someone isn’t complaining that their salary is too low, then they are being paid too much.”

· Core developer salaries are significantly below market: Data from Protocol Guild in September last year showed that the median base salary for Ethereum core developers is $140,000, which is 50% to 60% lower than the market average ($359,000). Some developers revealed that they turned down compensation packages as high as $700,000 just to continue their core work. Unlike commercial crypto projects that offer equity or token incentives, only 37% of EF contributors can receive such rewards.

· Controversy over foundation fund usage: The community criticizes that EF recently sold 10,000 Ethereum worth 43 million USD, yet failed to address the issue of inadequate developer compensation. Critics question the flow of EF's funds, pointing out the problem of “grant abuse” – some projects received over 200,000 USD in funding but did very little work, while core developers have been underpaid for a long time. EF holds a huge reserve of Ethereum but has not conducted effective treasury management, nor has it even staked its holdings.

Big V Statement: Solana sells olive branches, V God affirms Polygon's contribution

· Solana extends an olive branch: In response to Nailwal's criticism, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal publicly suggested collaborating, demonstrating Solana's ambition to attract Ethereum builders to its ecosystem.

· Migration case studies at the application layer: A development team shared that after four years of struggling on Ethereum and Base, they turned to Solana six months ago and generated $3.5 million in revenue within 48 hours of launch. They described the Base and Ethereum ecosystems as a “closed dinner” with “insider dynamics,” while Solana offers open, developer-first support.

· Vitalik Buterin's response: V God expressed gratitude for Nailwal's criticism and highly acknowledged Polygon's contributions, including hosting Polymarket and promoting the development of ZK-EVM technology through early investments in the Jordi Baylina team. He praised Nailwal for voluntarily returning $190 million worth of SHIB tokens to fund Balvi's open-source biotechnology project and pointed out that Polygon plays a “very valuable role” in the Ethereum ecosystem.

· The leading edge of Polygon Zero technology: Brendan Farmer of Polygon Zero refuted the claim of using off-the-shelf ZK technology, pointing out that all production-ready zkVMs, except RiscZero, operate on Polygon Zero's technology, including Succinct Labs and Brevis. He emphasized that Polygon's open-source Plonky2 solution is over 100 times faster than StarkWare's existing solutions, considering it a contribution to a “public good.”

Conclusion

The public questioning by the founder of Polygon and the core developer salary crisis reveal deep-seated contradictions within the Ethereum ecosystem regarding community support, talent incentives, and foundation governance. This culture of “no reward for merit” not only risks prompting important contributors like Polygon to reconsider their strategic positioning but also exacerbates the risk of talented developers migrating to emerging ecosystems like Solana. The Ethereum Foundation urgently needs to effectively manage its vast Ethereum treasury and reform the developer compensation structure to continue solidifying its position as a leader in smart contract platforms; otherwise, the crisis of talent loss and community division will be hard to avoid.

Disclaimer: This article is for news information only and does not constitute any investment advice. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and investors should make cautious decisions.