Geth Lead Péter Szilágyi Claims Ethereum Foundation Quietly Backed Rival Team

Longtime Go-Ethereum (Geth) maintainer Péter Szilágyi has publicly accused the Ethereum Foundation (EF) of secretly funding an alternate Geth development crew—and then undercutting his original team’s work.

“I DARE you and the entire Ethereum Foundation to say you didn’t offer $5 million for us to spin off,” Szilágyi wrote on X. “Or that EF didn’t ask at least three times to form a private company instead of staying in-house.” x.com

Secret Fork Inside Nethermind?

According to Szilágyi, EF leadership quietly carved out a second Geth group under the Nethermind umbrella—“100% independent” and with “no intended collaboration,” per comments attributed to EF’s Josh Stark. None of the original Geth core maintainers (Szilágyi, Felix, Martin) were notified until Szilágyi stumbled on the effort last November. cointelegraph.comcryptorank.io

Pressure Tactics and Pay Cuts

Szilágyi says the Foundation went further—proposing salary reductions for his team and even urging developers to take roles at other firms. On three occasions, EF reportedly dangled $5 million in front of Szilágyi and his colleagues to spin out as a standalone entity, only to have those offers withdrawn when they balked. cryptohead.io

Szilágyi’s Departure and Denials

In early June, Szilágyi confronted EF co-executive Tomasz Stańczak in a one-on-one meeting about the secret team—and was immediately let go. EF has declined to comment publicly on the firing, but Stańczak has since pushed back, insisting “there is no plan to remove Geth” and praising its maintainers as “essential to Ethereum’s security.” cryptorank.iocryptonews.net

Broader Context: Restructuring at the Foundation

This clash comes on the heels of EF’s June 2 announcement of staff layoffs and a renewed focus on protocol scaling, “blobspace” expansion and user-experience improvements—moves aimed at enticing institutional backers but criticized by some as sidelining core contributors. EF also unveiled a DeFi-based funding model, replacing routine ETH sales with yield-driven strategies and pledging regular treasury reports for transparency. cointelegraph.com

What’s Next?

• Community Oversight: With trust fraying, Ethereum’s governance forums are demanding an independent review of EF’s client-diversification plans.
• Client Diversity: Rival implementations (Nethermind, Erigon, Besu) may gain more explicit backing if the dispute deepens.
• Developer Morale: How EF balances institutional goals with open-source stewardship will shape Ethereum’s technical future—and its community’s cohesion.

As the feud plays out, every node operator and protocol stakeholder will be watching: can Ethereum’s stewarded grant model coexist with the transparent collaboration that open-source software depends on?

Written by Press News Editorial
Sources:

• Péter Szilágyi’s June 11 X thread x.com
• Cointelegraph: “Developer accuses Ethereum Foundation of undermining devs” cointelegraph.com
• CryptoRank coverage of the public EF–Geth spat cryptorank.io

This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.