- Polygon has accused zkSync rollup creator Matter Labs of plagiarizing its open source code
- Polygon claims Matter Labs copied sections of the code and failed to include the necessary citations indicating the code’s original source
- Matter Labs has however refuted the claims noting that the code’s source was “prominently” indicated
Polygon has accused zkSync rollup creator Matter Labs of plagiarizing its open source code. The Ethereum scaling layer claims that Matter Labs copied sections of the code and failed to include the necessary citation indicating the code’s original source as is a common practice in the industry. Matter Labs has however refuted the claims noting that the code’s source was “prominently” indicated.
Copy-Pasting Hurts the Ecosystem
According to Polygon, Matter Labs plagiarized a section of code from its Plonky2 library and used it in a newly-released proving feature. The Ethereum scaling layer indicated that the “copy-pasted” code lacked a “clear attribution to the original authors,” something it said “hurts the [blockchain] ecosystem.”
Crypto runs on the open source ethos. When projects don’t follow it, the ecosystem suffers.
We were disappointed to see that @zksync copied our code without attribution and made misleading claims about the original work, so we wrote this post.
https://t.co/8VnoYVWgI8— Polygon Zero 💜 (@0xPolygonZero) August 3, 2023
Although Matter Labs acknowledged directly lifting 5% of its proving system’s code from Polygon’s Plonky2 library, it said that Polygon’s claims are “misleading” since it acknowledged the source of the copied code in the first line of their system’s code.
Every decision we make as a team towards building @zksync is driven by our ethos, which is based on integrity and transparency. We have made honest mistakes in the past, but we always did our best to openly acknowledge them and take responsibility. And will always do so in the… https://t.co/4yjpSCHC2d
— Alex G. ∎ (@gluk64) August 4, 2023
In one example provided by Polygon, Matter Labs provided a counter-example indicating that the code was properly attributed but Polygon excluded the attribution line from the code examples it shared on a blog post.
A Detailed Response is Coming
However, the zkSync rollup creator is yet to provide counterexamples of other “unattributed” code snippets provided by Polygon, only saying that a comprehensive response is on the way.
The standoff between the two competing Ethereum layer two platforms has attracted comments from the blockchain community with some seemingly convinced that Matter Labs is on the wrong and that it’s not a new occurrence. Others like Starkware’s Louis Guthmann kept a neutral stand saying that such claims “are very serious.”
These allegations are very serious. Respecting licences and more importantly, honesty and clear attribution is the soul of Open Source. Without it, we lose the incentives that make all this possible. https://t.co/8ay0hUrhAH
— Louis Guthmann 🦇🔊| ✨ | 🐺-Maxi (@GuthL) August 3, 2023
With the two platforms competing to become the go-to scaling network on the Ethereum blockchain, it’s to be seen whether Matter Labs will provide an in-depth explanation and add the necessary attributions in case the allegations are true.
