Ethereum Scaling Drama: Polygon and Sonic Labs Claim Zero Foundation Support

Ethereum's scaling champions break their silence—and they're not holding back.

The Layer-2 Rebellion

Polygon and Sonic Labs just dropped a bombshell accusation against the Ethereum Foundation. After successfully scaling the world's second-largest blockchain, both teams claim they received exactly zero support from the very organization meant to champion Ethereum's growth.

While Ethereum continues to dominate DeFi and NFT markets, its scaling solutions appear to be thriving despite—not because of—foundation backing. The teams built working Layer-2 solutions that process thousands of transactions at fractions of Ethereum's mainnet costs.

Scaling Without Permission

Polygon's proof-of-stake chain and Sonic Labs' optimistic rollups both achieved what many thought impossible: making Ethereum actually usable for mainstream applications. They bypassed congestion issues that have plagued Ethereum since the 2021 bull run, cutting gas fees from hundreds of dollars to pennies.

The foundation's silence speaks volumes about where institutional priorities really lie—and it's not with the builders doing the actual work. Typical foundation behavior: celebrate the wins, distance from the grind.

Now these scaling solutions process millions of daily transactions while the foundation focuses on... well, whatever foundations focus on instead of helping their most successful projects.

Polygon Founder Questions Ecosystem Loyalty

Nailwal stated that he “,” despite building infrastructure that scaled the network and hosting successful applications, such as Polymarket.

He noted that “I/we never got any direct support from the EF or the Ethereum CT community — in fact, the reverse,” while maintaining moral loyalty that potentially cost “billions of dollars in Polygon’s valuation.”

The Ethereum community refuses to classify Polygon PoS as a layer-2, despite its ecosystem including true L2s like Katana and XLayer, which creates market perception issues as competitors like Hedera Hashgraph achieve higher valuations.

Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, emphasized that “Polygon PoS is a customer of Ethereum” that pays significant fees to the network, arguing the Foundation should “” rather than “” contributors.

Nailwal referenced friends suggesting that Polygon declare itself an L1, noting that the chain WOULD likely achieve a two- to five-times higher valuation with such repositioning.

He promised “a final push that might just revive the entire L2 narrative” in the coming weeks, while acknowledging that Ethereum operates as a democracy where “people on all sides end up disgruntled.“

Read this from Peter and realized that it's time for me to also speak up.

NGL, I’ve started questioning my loyalty toward Ethereum. I did not come into crypto because of Bitcoin but because of Ethereum. I also have a lot of gratitude toward @VitalikButerin — someone I looked up… https://t.co/yrcrGEwXs8

Developer Compensation Crisis Exposes Foundation Mismanagement

Szilágyi revealed in a May 2024 letter to Foundation leadership that his total compensation for six years managing Ethereum’s primary execution client was $625,000 before taxes, with zero benefits, raises, or incentives.

He described working at the Foundation as ““. He warned that the situation creates “a perfect breeding ground for perverse incentives, conflicts of interests and eventual protocol capture.”

The former developer paraphrased Vitalik Buterin’s compensation philosophy as ““

Back in September, Protocol Guild data revealed that Ethereum Core developers earn 50% to 60% below market standards, with a median base pay of $140,000 compared to average market offers of $359,000.

One developer reported declining a $700,000 package to continue CORE work.

Only 37% of contributors receive equity or token grants from employers, unlike commercial crypto ventures, which often offer significant upside packages.

Community responses highlighted that the Foundation recently sold 10,000 ETH worth $43 million while maintaining insufficient developer compensation.

the lead engineer for Ethereum is paid $105k a year, pre-tax, with no benefits, no raises, and no incentives

ethereum has a market cap of $480b and the foundation recently sold $43m of $eth

where is the money going? pic.twitter.com/2PX4AQ53lH

Critics across crypto Twitter questioned where Foundation funds are directed, with some noting a grant abuse issue where projects receive over $200,000 for minimal work, while core developers remain underpaid.

The Foundation holds a massive ETH treasury without implementing treasury management or even staking its holdings.

Ecosystem Builders Migrate

Vitalik Buterin responded to Nailwal’s criticism with appreciation for Polygon’s contributions.

He highlighted the platform’s role in hosting Polymarket and advancing ZK-EVM technology through early investments in Jordi Baylina’s team.

Buterin noted Polygon’s “immensely valuable role in the ethereum ecosystem” and praised Nailwal’s personal efforts, including $190 million voluntarily returned from donated SHIB tokens that funded Balvi’s open-source biotech program.

He suggested that Polygon could adopt off-the-shelf ZK technology, which has improved dramatically, with proving costs now around $0.0001 per transaction.

I really appreciate both @sandeepnailwal's personal contributions and @0xPolygon's immensely valuable role in the ethereum ecosystem.

To recap:

* Polygon hosts @Polymarket, which is probably the single most successful example of a "not just boring finance" app that has actually…

Brendan Farmer from Polygon Zero countered that “every zkVM running in prod” except RiscZero runs on Polygon Zero’s technology, including Succinct Labs and Brevis.

He argued Polygon’s Plonky2 release was over 100 times faster than existing solutions from StarkWare, crediting the company for open-sourcing the work as a public good.

Farmer noted that the $0.0001 per transaction figures may be misleading when considering the actual costs of proving high-throughput chains that require over-provisioned resources.

One development team shared that after four years of building on Ethereum and Base without success, they moved to Solana six months ago and generated $3.5 million in revenue within 48 hours of their launch.

we spent 4 years building on ethereum and base. nothing took off.

6 months ago, we moved to @solana

launched addicted → $3.5M in revenue in 48h, flipping pumpfun’s 24h rev.

if you’re still building on base or any eth L2, you’re wasting your potential.

solana isn’t just…

They described the Base and Ethereum ecosystems as “” with inner-circle dynamics, while Solana provides open, builder-first support regardless of project type.

In a related development, the Foundation has begun decommissioning the Holesky testnet this week, following the completion of Fusaka-related testing, with node operators scheduled to shut down their infrastructure over the next ten days.