Former Geth engineer criticizes Buterin's influence, sparks debate

• Former developer questions Vitalik's influence on the Ethereum Foundation
• Polygon and Andre Cronje react and expand the crypto debate
• Ethereum Foundation Undergoes Restructuring, Cuts Developers

Péter Szilágyi, former Geth client lead at the Ethereum Foundation, has made public the contents of a letter sent to leadership last year, reigniting a sensitive debate about governance. In the document, he argues that key ecosystem decisions should depend on a small circle of five to ten people, supported by a few venture capital firms.

According to Szilágyi, the ability of new projects to thrive is deeply tied to relationships with this internal network, which distorts incentives and technical filters. "Ethereum's direction has always been about its relationship with Vitalik," he wrote, pointing to Vitalik Buterin's influence as a determining factor in approval and access to funding.

The engineer also mentioned pay disparities and reward asymmetry, claiming to have received approximately $625 over six years while Ethereum's market value soared to hundreds of billions. He believes the current arrangement would leave the Ethereum Foundation exposed to the capture of vested interests and a lack of transparency in decision-making.

The letter immediately resonated with project leaders. Sandeep Nailwal, CEO of the Polygon Foundation, posted that he had "begun to question" his loyalty to Ethereum, stating: "I/we have never received direct support from the EF or the Ethereum CT community—in fact, quite the opposite. But I have always felt a moral loyalty to Ethereum, even if it costs me billions of dollars in Polygon's valuation, perhaps."

Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs, publicly highlighted difficulties in obtaining answers from the foundation's leadership, criticizing its communication and predictability. These reports added layers to the debate over the governance of open-source networks and their funding mechanisms.

Buterin didn't directly comment on the accusations, but he posted a message praising Polygon and Sandeep's work, citing the team's early investment in zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines. He cited Jordi Baylina's team and infrastructure initiatives like AggLayer as significant contributions to scalability.

The episode follows a major restructuring at the Ethereum Foundation in recent months. In June, the organization confirmed developer layoffs and detailed a new strategy for managing and allocating ETH reserves, signaling a reallocation of priorities and an attempt to strengthen funding criteria and internal governance.