In a recent statement posted on twitter earlier today, Vitalik Buterin praised Sandeep Nailwal and Polygon for their important contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem.
He emphasised their efforts to advance pandemic research programs, support for scalable applications like Polymarket, and early investment in ZK-EVM technology.
He said that he really appreciated both Sandeep Nailwal’s personal contributions and Polygon’s immensely valuable role in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Also Read: Kevin O’Leary Warns Ethereum’s $1,000 Gas-Fee Spike Exposes Critical Scaling Problem
The Ethereum Community faces severe backlash
Péter Szilágyi, a core engineer for Ethereum, has made public a letter he sent to the ETH Foundation criticising inventor Vitalik Buterin and a select group of people for wielding undue influence.
When Polygon CEO Sandeep Nailwal referred to the ETH community as a “shit show,” the situation became heated. In what appears to be a damage control measure following significant community outrage, Buterin has responded to these events.
One of the main developers of the Ethereum ecosystem, Péter Szilágyi, has posted his letter to the Ethereum Foundation in which he criticised Vitalik Buterin and his inner circle for controlling too many development choices.
This letter’s disclosure coincides with Buterin’s announcement of a significant ETH update that makes cryptographic proofs possible throughout the ecosystem.
Comments from Polygon CEO
Sandeep Nailwal, the CEO of Polygon, expressed his intense annoyance with the ETH community after reading Peter’s message. He claimed that even though he has long supported Ethereum, he has started to doubt his “loyalty toward the network.”
According to Nailwal, the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole has devolved into “a shit show,” with even significant contributors frequently doubting their role. He pointed out that neither the Ethereum Foundation nor its core technical community had offered Polygon much, if any, direct help.
The social dynamics and “socialistic behaviour” of ETH, which frequently marginalise initiatives like Polygon that have significantly impacted the ecosystem, were attributed by Mailwal.
Co-Founder of CoinDCX responded saying, “Even Decentralised Ethereum needs a strong leader at the helm to retain successful L2s like Polygon. If Polygon withdraws from the ETH chain, it’s over.”
Vitalik responded
He recapped that Polygon hosted Polymarket, which he considered probably the single most successful example of a “not just boring finance” app that had actually been successful and provided value.
He said Polygon had also hosted many other applications that needed high levels of scalability. He added that Polygon had put a lot of resources into ZK-EVM, proving early on, by bringing in Jordi Baylina’s team and through other efforts, and had greatly helped move the space forward.
He also said that Sandeep had put a lot of his personal effort into CryptoRelief, which had made large contributions to biomedical infrastructure and research inside India.
He reported that Sandeep had voluntarily returned $190 million of proceeds from the SHIB tokens that Vitalik had donated to him, which had made the whole Balvi open-source anti-airborne-disease biotech program possible and possibly accelerated understanding of important anti-pandemic topics like clean indoor air by years.
Buterin continued, pointing to a possible future collaboration path, with recent developments in ZK proving systems may allow Polygon to interact with Ethereum’s main chain and offer more robust security assurances.