A lead developer of the Geth Ethereum client has accused the Ethereum Foundation (EF) of secretly creating and funding a second Geth development team. The Geth client is the software used by validators to execute Ethereum transactions.
According to an X post by core developer Péter Szilágyi, the organization undermined the Geth development team in several ways, including encouraging the developers to work at other firms, proposing salary cuts and offering $5 million for the team to spin off into a private company. Szilágyi wrote in a Wednesday X post:
“EF started and funded a second Geth team inside Nethermind. One ‘100% independent fork from us, with no intended collaboration,’ according to Josh Stark, and they didn’t tell either me, Felix, or Martin until I found out in November 2025.”
He corrected the year further down the post chain, writing, “2024, whatev :).”
The Geth developer said he was fired from the Ethereum Foundation following a one-on-one meeting with Josh Stark, a representative for the Foundation, where he confronted Stark about the second “secret” Geth team.
Cointelegraph reached out to the Ethereum Foundation for comment but hadn’t received a response by time of publication.
The allegations follow leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation and a series of initiatives aimed at promoting the blockchain protocol to institutional investors to renew interest in the Ethereum network.
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Ethereum Foundation lays off staff, pivots funding strategy
On June 2, the foundation announced staff cuts and revamped its core development team to focus on scaling the protocol, increasing blobspace, and improving Ethereum’s user experience, which critics have long argued is too complex for the average person.
The Ethereum Foundation also pivoted to a funding strategy driven by yield from decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing as opposed to its traditional method of selling Ether (ETH) on the open market to fund operations.
As part of the new treasury strategy, the foundation will also produce regular financial reports outlining operational costs and current reserves to provide transparency to the community on the organization’s budgeting.
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