Ethereum lead developer, Péter Szilágyi called out the Ethereum Foundation on alleged plans to remove Geth

A public feud erupted on X (formerly Twitter) this week between Ethereum Foundation (EF) co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak and longtime Go Ethereum (Geth) lead maintainer Péter Szilágyi, amidst rumors that EF wants to sideline the client. 

Szilágyi took to X, alleging that there’s a covert $5 million effort to spin out Geth’s core development team, while funding a secret fork. Stańczak responded publicly, denying these accusations and affirming Geth’s ongoing importance to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum Foundation allegedly offers to spin out Geth client while building a secret Nethermind client

On June 11, Szilágyi posted a series of tweets alleging that the EF had attempted to push the Geth team out, and even offered $5 million on three separate occasions. He claimed that the offer came with implied pressure to detach from the EF, and after raising concerns internally, he was fired.

He said, “Within 24 hours, I was fired from the foundation.” These tweets have led to rising tensions between EF and the Geth team.

The Ethereum Foundation is a non-profit that supports the development of Ethereum’s ecosystem and its core protocols. Among its technical assets is Geth, which is short for Go Ethereum, the most popular implementation of the Ethereum client. It helps nodes verify transactions and maintain blockchain consensus.

Péter Szilágyi is the lead developer at Ethereum and a top contributor to the development and maintenance of the Geth client.

Szilágyi alleges in his tweet that a secret client is being built by EF, “Did you all know EF started (and funded) a second Geth team *inside* #Nethermind? One ‘100% independent fork from us, with no intended collaboration’ according to @0xstark. Ah, and they totally didn’t tell either me, Felix or Martin until I found out in November 2025. Yeah.”

Tomasz Stańczak, founder of Nethermind, joined EF as its co-executive director, pairing with  Hsiao-Wei Wang in a dual leadership model. This appointment marked a new governance structure for EF to improve transparency and management.

However, as Szilágyi alleged in his tweet that EF helped build a client inside Nethermind, transparency claims might be questioned.

The EF has seen its fair share of drama

Earlier this year, Aya Miyaguchi transitioned from her role as the executive director, following criticism about how she was running the Foundation. The community claimed that the team she led was responsible for the underperformance of $ETH.

She was succeeded by Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang, who are now feuding with Szilágyi. The feud follows the EF layoffs within its core protocol R&D division, which began on June 3, 2025. The layoffs come with a rebrand of the department to “Protocol”, which the Foundation says in a post is to foster “a new level of focus and collaboration”.

However, the tweet by Szilágyi points out that this might be a move to remove Geth. “EF fired 4 dev teams a week ago and last I talked to @hwwonx, she said that the goal is to also remove Geth in a couple years…”

He has also accused Stańczak of encouraging his team members to start interviewing with other companies, framing the comments as part of a broader effort to disband the Go Ethereum team.

Stańczak has denied these claims. In a public statement, he emphasized that the EF has no intention of removing Geth, affirming that EF will continue to support Go Ethereum and make it an even better client software.

The EF has yet to respond to the $5 million claims directly. However, the community expects that the Foundation’s leadership will be compelled to put out an official statement both for transparency and community benefit.

Szilágyi now has everybody’s attention; if his claims hold weight, a third party might come out to corroborate his story. Many developers and Ethereum stakeholders are also monitoring the situation. This conflict may lead to calls for more robust governance structures and clearer boundaries between the Foundation and development teams.

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