The decision of an Ethereum Foundation researcher to become a paid advisor for EigenLayer has received criticism on social media, with concerns raised about potential conflicts of interest. In a detailed post on May 19, Justin Drake, an Ethereum researcher, revealed that he had taken on the role at EigenFoundation, which comes with a significant incentive in the form of EIGEN tokens that will be vested over three years. Drake stated that the value of this incentive is worth millions of dollars and exceeds the combined value of all his other assets.
EigenLayer is a protocol that recently partially launched on the mainnet. It enables users to stake liquid staked Ether (ETH) tokens, which are derivative tokens representing ETH staked in a protocol like Lido. This effectively allows ETH to be staked twice.
Drake specified that he accepted the role with the condition that he would focus on researching restaking risks. He also emphasized that his default position would continue to be critical of EigenLayer, acknowledging that the role comes with potential downsides beyond his personal reputation. Drake expressed his hope of having a front-row seat to restaking issues and being able to guide EigenLayer from within.
Prior to Drake’s announcement, Jordan Fish, a crypto trader and co-host of UpOnly known as Cobie, asked Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for his thoughts on Ethereum Foundation staff accepting significant financial packages from projects that could potentially have conflicting interests with Ethereum. EigenLayer was used as an example in this theoretical scenario.
While some individuals, including Hudson Jameson from Polygon, David Wong from zkSecurity, and Robbie Nakarmi from Standard Chartered Ventures, praised Drake for his transparency, others expressed concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
In his post, Drake aimed to address claims that EigenLayer was attempting to bribe or corrupt the Ethereum Foundation. He highlighted that the Ethereum Foundation is a large organization with over 300 people, and to his knowledge, only three individuals have a formal relationship with EigenLayer entities: one as an early investor in EigenLabs and two as recent advisors for EigenFoundation. Drake stated that he didn’t believe these individuals would compromise their morals, and he himself was prepared to end his advisory role if EigenLayer took a direction that goes against Ethereum’s interests.
Earlier in May, EigenLayer faced backlash from users who felt that its program was too restrictive. In response, the project airdropped an additional 28 million EIGEN tokens to users.
As the debate surrounding Ethereum restaking continues, questions arise regarding whether it is a groundbreaking innovation or a potentially risky endeavor.