The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is embroiled in internal conflict following public accusations by Péter Szilágyi, lead developer of Geth, Ethereum's most-used execution client. Szilágyi alleges the Foundation has repeatedly attempted to spin out the Geth team as an independent company, reportedly offering $5 million to facilitate this separation. He further claims that the EF secretly funded a separate Geth development team within Nethermind without informing the original developers, and undermined the existing team via proposed salary cuts and encouraging developers to work elsewhere.
This controversy surfaced publicly amid EF's strategic shift toward a research and education focus, raising concerns within the Ethereum community about long-term support for critical client software. Geth is essential for network stability, with a majority of Ethereum nodes relying on it to validate and propagate blocks and transactions. Szilágyi's revelations came alongside EF leadership denying any plans to phase out Geth and affirming continued commitment to its development.
The dispute follows leadership changes and a funding strategy overhaul at the EF, which now aims to finance operations through yield generated from decentralized finance (DeFi) rather than traditional ETH sales. The Foundation also recently announced staff layoffs and revamped its core development team to prioritize protocol scaling, increasing blobspace, and improving user experience.
Szilágyi was reportedly dismissed from the Foundation after confronting EF representatives over the existence of the secret team. The situation highlights deeper governance and transparency issues that could impact Ethereum’s decentralization and software reliability. The Ethereum Foundation has yet to issue an official statement addressing the specifics of the accusations or plans concerning the Geth client’s future.