Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly recognized Sandeep Nailwal, CEO of Polygon, for his work in favor of the ecosystem and his personal contributions to social causes. In contrast, the latter alleged that his admiration for the project is beginning to wear out.
Buterin wrote on X that he “values Sandeep Nailwal’s personal contributions and Polygon’s important role within the Ethereum ecosystem.” In addition, he highlighted that the network has hosted prominent applications such as Polymarket and infrastructure initiatives such as AggLayer.
He also highlighted Nailwal’s commitment to charitable causes: “Sandeep put great personal effort into CryptoRelief, which has contributed to biomedical development in India, and voluntarily returned $190 million from the SHIB tokens I donated, making the entire Balvi program of open biotechnology against airborne diseases possible.”
Buterin’s message came a few hours after Nailwal published a critical reflection on his relationship with Ethereum and the treatment that Polygon receives within that community. In his text, The businessman admitted that he has begun to question his loyalty to the projectdespite having been one of his greatest sources of inspiration.
“We never received direct support from the Ethereum Foundation or its core community, but I always felt a moral loyalty to the initiative, even if it cost me billions of dollars in Polygon’s valuation,” wrote Nailwal.
Along these lines, the developer lamented what he considers a hostile attitude within the Ethereum environment, which he describes as “a disaster” in which even great collaborators end up questioning their membership every week.
L1, L2 and zero knowledge proofs
According to Nailwal, many within the ecosystem are urging him to declare Polygon as an independent layer 1 (L1) chain, which he believes could significantly increase its market valuation.
The specialist refers to the idea that the network stops presenting itself as a solution built on Ethereum and begins to position itself as an autonomous platform, with its own ecosystem and validators. In practice, this would mean that Polygon would no longer depend on the infrastructure and security of the project co-created by Vitalik Buterin, but would compete directly with it.
Nailwal stated that the Ethereum community “does not recognize Polygon as a true Layer 2 (L2) network,” and then expressed annoyance by arguing that when an app like Polymarket is successful, people don’t see it.e gives credit and simply attributes it to the initiative co-created by Vitalik.
Buterin, for his part, acknowledged the technical dilemma facing Polygon around zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs), and suggested that the company could take advantage of recent advances in that technology to improve the security of its Proof of Stake (PoS) network. “ZK tests today cost about a tenth of a cent per transaction, and many have not yet realized how much this technology has improved,” pointed out.
It is worth mentioning that Polygon operates a PoS network that works as a sidechain connected to Ethereumwhich means that it uses its own consensus mechanism and validators, but depends on the latter to secure and finally validate its transactions.
Zero-knowledge proofs, on the other hand, are cryptographic protocols that allow the correctness of calculations or transactions to be validated without revealing the underlying information, facilitating scalability by compressing thousands of transactions into a single efficient proof for Ethereum Layer 1.
Vitalik’s conciliatory gesture
Despite the friction, Buterin closed his message with a conciliatory gesture: “I greatly appreciate Sandeep and Polygon for their contributions. “Most great actors just watch, but few really get involved.”
While Polygon seeks to consolidate its role as a scalable solution with its PoS network and zero-knowledge proofs, the Ethereum main network, as reported by CriptoNoticias, continues to record historical records for total value locked (TVL), exceeding $373 billion and increasingly concentrating on high-value financial applications.
The situation reflects how the development, adoption and recognition of each layer and platform within Ethereum not only depends on the technology, but also on community trust and the ability to drive innovation.