- He praised Polygon and its founder Nailwal for their contributions to Ethereum’s scalability.
- Buterin highlighted Polygon’s early leadership in zero-knowledge technology.
- Nailwal participated in various humanitarian efforts, including funding research for the Balvi pandemic project.
The cryptocurrency market remains weak as Bitcoin’s fundamentals continue to deteriorate.
Amid this uncertainty, Vitalik Buterin publicly praised Polygon and its founder, Sandeep Nailwal, for their notable contributions to scaling Ethereum.
Buterin commented on Polygon’s technical achievements, especially its early investment in developing an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) that leverages zero-knowledge proofs.
He also commended Nailwal’s humanitarian efforts that combined public health initiatives with blockchain development.
I greatly appreciate both Sandeep Nailwal’s personal contributions and Polygon’s extremely valuable role in the Ethereum ecosystem.
I really appreciate both @sandeepnailwal’s personal contributions and @0xPolygon’s immensely valuable role in the ethereum ecosystem.
To recap:
* Polygon hosts @Polymarket, which is probably the single most successful example of a “not just boring finance” app that has actually…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 21, 2025
Polygon’s influence on Ethereum’s growth
Buterin’s post emphasized Polygon as a cornerstone of Ethereum scalability, crediting the network for hosting innovative applications.
For example, Polymarket gained significant traction as a non-financial blockchain application delivering real-world value.
Polygon has also supported a variety of high-yield opportunities.
The project prioritized development and research into ZK-EVM technology from an early stage.
Vitalik applauded Polygon’s early collaboration with Jordi Baylina’s team, noting that this partnership helped the Ethereum ZK ecosystem flourish during its experimental phase.
Polygon invested substantial resources in demonstrating ZK-EVM from the start, both by bringing Jordi Baylina’s team on board and through other efforts, which greatly advanced the space.
The Ethereum co-founder also praised Polygon for creating AggLayer, a solution that assists in aggregating proofs.
Buterin believes these initiatives demonstrate Polygon’s dedication to building innovative tools that strengthen the Ethereum ecosystem.
Nailwal’s humanitarian efforts
Beyond Polygon’s technical success, Buterin highlighted Sandeep Nailwal’s humanitarian commitment and personal integrity.
For instance, Nailwal’s CryptoRelief initiative donated crypto assets to support India’s biomedical infrastructure.
In a notable act of integrity, Nailwal refunded $190 million worth of SHIB tokens that Buterin had donated to the relief fund.
Buterin redirected those funds to launch Balvi, an anti-pandemic project focused on indoor air safety and improving global health outcomes.
He voluntarily returned $190 million from SHIB revenues that I had donated, which made the entire Balvi biotech anti-airborne-disease program possible and likely accelerated our understanding of critical anti-pandemic topics, such as indoor air quality, by years.
ZK technology and what’s next
Alongside his praise, Buterin reflected on Polygon’s current crossroads as its technological contributions evolve.
While the Polygon ecosystem pioneered ZK technology, the landscape has matured considerably.
Specialized ZK-focused teams—such as those at ZeroRisk, Brevis, and Succinct Labs—are now operating independently from specific L2 networks.
Buterin trusts that these separations increase specialization, allowing each team to showcase its full capabilities.
He also encouraged Polygon to adopt “user-ready ZK technology” to enhance on-chain security within its proof-of-security framework and to align more closely with Ethereum’s L2 scalability vision.
Indeed, ZK solutions have taken a more user-friendly approach: proof generation costs have fallen dramatically, to roughly $0.0001 per transaction in some cases.
Ethereum altcoins and Polygon’s POL token underperformed today as selling pressure dominated the broader crypto market, with some assets losing up to 5% of their value over the past day.