Haha, I hope not for the sake of the plebs.

Sounds like they we trying to extort money out of the OTHER founder, which is an interesting tactic. They talked about it a bit here:

What Bitcoin Did: SHOULD BITCOIN OSSIFY? W/ Jameson Lopp

Episode webpage: https://sites.libsyn.com/219386/bitcoin-ossification-the-innovators-dilemma-w-jameson-lopp