On a Friday in March, employees at an international technology foundation received a 38-page document outlining leadership’s vision for the foundation for the next 1,000 years.
And on page 11 — nestled between a winking anime woman and three yellow cats — was a suicide pledge.
Authors, maintainers, editors and distributors of “this software” would pledge to ensure the software remained free and publicly accessible, and would also vow to “take his or her own life with a sword upon failure to uphold any of the pledges in this license,” the illustration read. It was labeled “Source Seppuku License,” an apparent reference to a traditional Japanese ritual suicide.
When the document went out on that Friday in March, employees were told to commit to the principles in the mandate by Monday or quit their jobs, according to the lawsuit brought by Kayleen Fulton, a Boulder woman who was fired from the Ethereum Foundation after she led employee resistance to the suicide pledge.
Winking character, keep it free… I am not a crypto holder but something seems off with the article.
The people running that company are nut jobs who demand cult like loyalty because they sell a scam product with a cult like following. I could totally see them doing some kind of sovereign citizen type of joke contract like this as some kind of loyalty test.
If you’re reporting facts on something that is wildly unfortunate and bizarre, it’s not the facts that are off, it’s* the thing you’re reporting on that’s off.
Again, I want to know what’s going on with this. Is this another Thiel? Do you know anything about the company executives? I don’t own crypto so I don’t really follow it.
It’s like the Linux foundation issuing a vision that the software should remain free. Members of foundation should pledge towards that mandate. If a scumbag is going to rug pull it to a commercial license, violating the pledge, they will probably reneg on any voluntary penalties that they also pledged for violating the first pledge.
While its all a bit dramatic, the game theory of the drama should have been explained better, in that drama for traitors traitoring will include their pledge to kill themselves which as traitors will just have to dismiss, while enduring drama.
https://archive.li/6jnqb
Winking character, keep it free… I am not a crypto holder but something seems off with the article.
I wonder how many swordcanes and trenchcoats the person who wrote that pledge owns.
The people running that company are nut jobs who demand cult like loyalty because they sell a scam product with a cult like following. I could totally see them doing some kind of sovereign citizen type of joke contract like this as some kind of loyalty test.
I agree, I want to know what, exactly, is going on.
If you’re reporting facts on something that is wildly unfortunate and bizarre, it’s not the facts that are off, it’s* the thing you’re reporting on that’s off.
Again, I want to know what’s going on with this. Is this another Thiel? Do you know anything about the company executives? I don’t own crypto so I don’t really follow it.
Here’s a much longer article including the official court cases filed against the suicide pact or fire document.
edit: LOL i knew i’d miss something
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2026/11/10/the-ethereum-foundation-is-officially-a-corporate-suicide-cult/
I think you forgot to paste it
Link?
It’s like the Linux foundation issuing a vision that the software should remain free. Members of foundation should pledge towards that mandate. If a scumbag is going to rug pull it to a commercial license, violating the pledge, they will probably reneg on any voluntary penalties that they also pledged for violating the first pledge.
While its all a bit dramatic, the game theory of the drama should have been explained better, in that drama for traitors traitoring will include their pledge to kill themselves which as traitors will just have to dismiss, while enduring drama.
Yeah this story is weird and confusing.