A fired Ethereum Foundation employee sues the foundation and Vitalik Buterin, saying she was pushed out for organizing a staff letter on its new mandate

A former Ethereum Foundation employee has taken the foundation, and Ethereum's best-known founder, to court. Kayleen Fulton, known in the community as Nixo, filed a complaint on November 4 in the US District Court for the District of Colorado against the foundation, its Singapore affiliate, executive Bastian Aue and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, The Block and The Cryptonomist report.

The dispute centers on the "EF Mandate", a statement of the foundation's mission published on March 13. One section, titled the "Source Seppuku License", invoked ritual suicide as the price of failing to uphold a promise to Ethereum. According to the complaint, staff could affirm the mandate or leave. Aue has said the wording was not meant to be taken literally, as the complaint acknowledges.

Fulton and a colleague, Trent Van Epps, organized a letter that backed the foundation's direction but objected to some conditions; it gathered 53 signatures. Fulton was dismissed on April 6. She says the firing was retaliation, and also brings disability discrimination and medical leave claims.

The complaint cites a partly recorded May 1 conversation in Norway in which Buterin is quoted as saying that "if you reward making a stink with outcomes," staff could use that to sway the foundation. Fulton says she was offered a year's salary, signed a release under duress, was never paid and later revoked it. These are allegations that have not been tested in court.