‘I dropped the EigenLayer advisorship’ — ETH Foundation’s Justin Drake

As a long-time researcher in the cryptocurrency space, I have witnessed my fair share of controversies and scandals, but the recent saga involving Justin Drake and the Eigen Foundation has left me quite disheartened.


In response to a dispute that arose in May 2024, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake publicly stepped down from his position at the Eigen Foundation, an organization managing the development of the Eigenlayer staking protocol, via a social media update on November 2nd.

In September 2024, Drake announced his departure from his role as an advisor at the Eigen Foundation and his exit from the Ultra Sound team. In a heartfelt statement addressed to the Ethereum community, this scholar expressed regret for any inconvenience caused.

“Going forward, I will turn down all advisorships, angel investments, and security councils. This personal policy goes above and beyond the recent Ethereum Foundation-wide conflict of interest policy, not because that was asked of me, but because I want to signal a commitment to neutrality.”

Rather than involving himself in other ventures, Drake expressed a desire to dedicate his time and energy towards enhancing the foundation of Ethereum’s main network, with a special emphasis on improving its consensus layer.

'I dropped the EigenLayer advisorship' — ETH Foundation's Justin Drake

Drake sparks controversy and is accused of conflict of interest

On May 19, 2024, Justin Drake publicly declared his new role as a paid advisor for the Eigen Foundation, which stirred up disagreement and criticism from members within the Ethereum community. According to Drake, this consulting position earned him millions of dollars’ worth of EIGEN tokens.

At that point in time, a researcher from the Ethereum Foundation commented that the worth of the tokens surpassed the total value of all his other possessions, and pointed out that his duties primarily involved investigating the diverse technical, procedural, and structural dangers linked to restaking.

Drake explicitly stated during his appointment that he wouldn’t participate in the public promotion of EigenLayer.

After Drake’s announcement, I found myself following the news that well-known Ethereum Foundation researcher, Dankrad Feist, was now advising EigenLayer as well. This move has sparked considerable controversy and fueled more allegations of potential conflicts of interest within our crypto community.

In response to actions taken by Drake and Feist, the Ethereum Foundation decided to create a conflict-of-interest policy as a preventative measure against future controversies and to calm the negative reactions from the Ethereum community.

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2024-11-03 06:29