# Former Ethereum Foundation Employee Alleges Firing Over Suicide Pledge

By Riza Dagoc

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/50661
Published: 2026-11-07T07:20:58.000Z
Updated: 2026-11-07T07:20:58.000Z
Section: Regulation

> Kayleen Fulton, a former Protocol Support lead, says she organized opposition to the clause before her termination.

A former Ethereum Foundation employee alleges she was fired after opposing a mandate clause that called for covered people to die by suicide if they broke pledges, in a lawsuit naming Vitalik Buterin.

Kayleen Fulton, a former Protocol Support lead, filed a lawsuit naming Stiftung Ethereum, Buterin and others. She alleges her termination followed her disclosure of a cancer diagnosis and her effort to rally employees against the clause.

The Ethereum Foundation circulated a draft mandate to employees in February. It included a so-called Source Seppuku License covering authors, maintainers, editors and (re)distributors. The text called for covered people to “take his or her own life with a sword” if they failed to uphold any pledge or modified or removed any part of the license.

Fulton says 79 employees voted to remove the clause. One employee cited a colleague who had died by suicide the previous year.

The version published on the foundation’s website retained the clause. The foundation also recorded the mandate on Ethereum’s blockchain with the language intact.

The lawsuit alleges Co-Executive Director Bastian Aue told employees that anyone who did not commit to the mandate would be treated as having resigned. Fulton and colleague Trent Van Epps then sent the board a letter signed by 53 members of the Protocol cluster. The letter declined to affirm the mandate under coercion and stated that its signers had not resigned.