In November 2, 2024, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake made a public announcement on social media, revealing his decision to resign from his advisory position at the Eigen Foundation. This decision came after a controversy that arose in May 2024.
Drake disclosed that he had stepped down from his role at the Eigen Foundation and also left the Ultra Sound team back in September 2024. In a public apology to the Ethereum community, he expressed his desire to dedicate his time and energy to the development of Ethereum’s layer-1 network, specifically focusing on its consensus layer.
The controversy surrounding Drake began on May 19, 2024, when he announced that he had accepted a paid advisory position at the Eigen Foundation. This move sparked backlash from the Ethereum community, as Drake admitted to receiving millions of dollars worth of EIGEN tokens in exchange for his advisory services. He emphasized that the value of these tokens exceeded the combined value of all his other assets.
Despite clarifying that his role was limited to researching technical, protocol, and structural risks related to restaking, Drake faced criticism for his involvement with EigenLayer. He made it clear from the start that he would not be involved in the public marketing of EigenLayer.
Following Drake’s announcement, another prominent Ethereum Foundation researcher, Dankrad Feist, also joined EigenLayer as an advisor. This decision further fueled accusations of a conflict of interest and led the Ethereum Foundation to create a conflict-of-interest policy to address such issues in the future and address concerns within the Ethereum community.