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Polygon and Sonic Labs Leaders Fault Ethereum Foundation as Buterin Outlines ZK Route for L2 Security

Public complaints over grants and recognition have widened into scrutiny of funding and developer pay across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Overview

  • Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said the Foundation provided no direct support to his team and that his loyalty to Ethereum is weakening.
  • Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje claimed he spent more than 700 ETH on deployments and infrastructure without receiving grants, outreach or any support.
  • Vitalik Buterin publicly thanked Polygon and Nailwal, citing early zero-knowledge work, the AggLayer effort and applications like Polymarket, as well as Nailwal’s humanitarian initiatives.
  • Buterin said Polygon currently lacks a ZK proof system that would deliver full Layer-2 security guarantees and suggested adopting off-the-shelf proving stacks, noting per-transaction proving can cost about $0.0001.
  • Nailwal argued Polygon might command a two- to five-times higher valuation as a standalone Layer-1, and prior disclosures from Péter Szilágyi about earning $625,000 over six years have renewed questions about Ethereum Foundation compensation and retention.