Parity Developer Quits Ethereum Projects Amid Outrage Sparked by Recent Tweet

Afri Schoeden, release manager at blockchain infrastructure firm Parity Technologies, has quit all Ethereum projects after a controversial tweet that sparked outrage on social media.

Schoeden spoke to blockchain media BreakerMag on Thursday, Feb. 21.In his tweet, Schoeden reportedly criticized Serenity, also known as "Ethereum 2.0" - a final upgrade for the Ethereum network that brings its mainnet over to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.

Polkadot is Parity's upcoming protocol aimed at linking different blockchains.

Schoedon told BreakerMag that he will "No longer work on Ethereum or Ethereum-related projects," but will remain with Parity.

"Polkadot is not a direct competitor to Ethereum and chains like Ethereum were always an integral part of the Polkadot vision. The focus of my tweet wasn't Polkadot or competition, but Serenity, which is, in my eyes, rolled out too slowly, and I fear that it [won't] matter anymore once we get there. People didn't get that, and only I am to blame for not getting the message straight."

Following the controversial tweet, users immediately accused the developer of "Betrayal," along with "Sabotaging" Ethereum from within and having a conflict of interest.

"I did not quit social media, I quit Ethereum. I did not go dark, I just left the community. I am no longer coordinating hard forks, building testnets, or contributing otherwise. I did not work on Polkadot, I never did, I worked on Ethereum. I did not hate Ethereum, I loved it."

The pre-release of Ethereum 2.0 kicked off in early February.

The Constantinople hard fork, an upgrade to the Ethereum, network - which encloses separate Ethereum Improvement Proposals in order to soften the transition from the current proof-of-work to PoS - is scheduled for Feb. 27.

The critical issue, which could have allowed for reentrancy attacks via the use of certain commands in Ethereum smart contracts, caused another dealy.