Polygon, an Ethereum scaling firm, recently accused Matter Labs, the firm behind the zkSync rollup, of copying part of Polygon’s open-source code without providing attribution. Matter Labs denied the allegations, arguing that the code was prominently attributed in a line atop one of the files in question.
This spat between Polygon and Matter Labs highlighted the ongoing tension between two of the leading firms vying to expand Ethereum and lay claim to its next wave of users. It also showed the dark side of open-source culture: making one’s code freely available can spur collaboration, earn goodwill and help tech mature – but it can also lead to messiness when there are competing interests at play.
Copy-pasting source code without attribution and making misleading claims about the original work is against the open source ethos and hurts the ecosystem, Polygon said in a blog post.
Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski acknowledged that they could have done it better and that the community had rightfully pointed out that there is a more standard approach to attributions, which we will wholeheartedly apply from now on.
Starkware co-founder Uri Kolodny tweeted that it wasn’t the first time that a company had copied another team’s code without giving credit, adding, I’ll bet an ice-cream it won’t be the last time either. Starkware’s Ecosystem Lead, Louis Guthmann, also shared that These allegations are very serious. Respecting licences and more importantly, honesty and clear attribution is the soul of Open Source.
This most recent spat between Polygon and Matter Labs showed the importance of respecting open-source licenses and giving credit where it is due.