Sandeep Nailwal of Polygon refutes accusations of prejudice by advocating for innovation rather than conflict.
Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, has blamed racial discrimination against the network’s co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal, for its difficulties in gaining broader acceptance in the industry.
Boiron claimed in a post on X on November 25 that Nailwal’s Indian ancestry has resulted in prejudices that prevent Polygon from being recognized even though it is widely used in the blockchain sector.
He composed:
“If Sandeep wasn’t Indian, then Web3 would have embraced Polygon massively instead of treating it as a second-class citizen even when Polygon PoS was more used than all blockchains combined.”
Boiron stated that geography played a part when a crypto community member argued that Indians had attained critical roles in big tech organizations worldwide. In contrast to individuals who labor from India, he observed that Indians in Western nations, such as Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, encounter fewer prejudices.
Additionally, he cited racial slurs and other discriminatory statements as proof of the fundamental problem. Boiron stated:
“All you need to see is all the ‘brown’ comments to know there’s an issue.”
On this matter, the larger Web3 community is still split. Some users blame the network’s tactics or competition from more recent Ethereum layer-2 networks for Polygon’s difficulties rather than prejudice.
Polygon is still a significant force in the market, and its POL token is the 30th largest digital asset by market capitalization, despite Boiron’s assertions. In contrast to more recent layer-2 networks, such as the Base network supported by Coinbase, the blockchain’s appeal has remained strong.
Unfazed, Nailwal
While acknowledging the difficulties, Nailwal advised engineers to maintain their concentration. Although admitting that he was first impacted by such discrimination, he now views it as accidental.
He said:
“I used to be pained with this, but now I understand nobody is doing it deliberately or in a systematic way, so don’t take it personally.”
Nailwal further underlined that focusing on discrimination is ineffective and suggested that developers focus on creating revolutionary solutions because persistent success can eventually dispel prejudices.
However, the discussion of prejudice against Indian developers is not limited to Polygon. Similar problems were brought to light by EigenLayer’s Nader Dabit, who pointed out that certain members of the crypto community had prejudices toward Indian developers, frequently as a result of insecurity.
