Ethereum Core Developer Criticizes Foundation Over Pay, Conflicts, and Governance Issues - Crypto Economy

TL;DR:

• Péter Szilágyi points out that the development core received only $625,000 in six years, a remuneration that does not reflect the value that Ethereum generated, which threatens talent retention and technical integrity.
• He denounces the lack of salary transparency and the concentration of power in a small circle around leaders and external firms, a situation that favors closed decisions and erodes community trust.
• He warns that dependence on external funding and the current structure could turn Ethereum into a project dominated by concentrated interests, compromising its technical autonomy and global reputation.

A key member of the Ethereum protocol development team has broken his silence to raise serious objections to the functioning of the Ethereum Foundation (EF). The developer, specifically the person responsible for the Geth client, Péter Szilágyi, revealed that for six years his total compensation was only $625,000 before taxes and without incentives, while Ethereum went from a valuation of almost zero to nearly $450 billion in capitalization.

Internal criticism and concerns

Szilágyi criticizes what he describes as a culture of opacity in the EF, pointing out that the salary structure favors idealistic volunteers over committed professionals, creating a danger of “protocol capture by interest groups.” He adds that the EF delegates excessive power to a small leadership circle around co-founder Vitalik Buterin and a few venture capital firms that dominate key projects and policy decisions.


The consequence, according to him, is a progressive deviation from the original ideals of the protocol toward pragmatic realities, where those who remain out of conviction end up depending economically on external sources that are more lucrative than the institution that theoretically safeguards the technical infrastructure.

During his public address, he stated that, despite the exponential growth of the Ethereum network, the remuneration of the development core remains low and salary transparency is virtually non-existent, which in his opinion creates internal imbalances and erodes the confidence of the ecosystem.

Beyond the figures, Szilágyi warns about governance: the concentration of power and dependence on external actors mean that Ethereum could be losing its decentralized and collaborative nature to become a project dominated by interests that have nothing to do with its original community.

The EF’s response has not been publicly detailed at the time of this report, and it remains to be seen how it will respond to internal pressure and how it might reform its incentive and governance systems to regain the trust of developers, users, and the global Ethereum community.