Key Points
Executive director Aya Miyaguchi announced on May 24 that the Ethereum Foundation will implement a policy on conflicts of interest.
This decision was triggered by the crypto community’s controversy over the foundation’s ties with developers from EigenLayer.
EigenFoundation Appointments Stir Controversy
Two researchers from Ethereum joined EigenFoundation as paid advisers in the week leading up to Miyaguchi’s announcement.
Justin Drake publicised his EigenFoundation appointment on May 19 through an extensive X post.
He stated that he would be receiving incentives from EigenFoundation worth millions of dollars, which he plans to reinvest into the Ethereum ecosystem.
On the following day, Dankrad Feist made a similar announcement.
Feist admitted to receiving a substantial amount of tokens but denied that it would influence his stance on the development of the core protocol.
He added that he was disclosing this information to allow the community to hold him accountable.
Both researchers clarified that they were accepting these roles on a personal level, rather than as representatives of the Ethereum Foundation.
Drake vowed to maintain a critical perspective of EigenLayer, while Feist committed to adopting contrarian views.
The researchers’ decisions received a mixed response.
ZkSecurity co-founder David Wong praised Drake for his transparency in a tweet, while others expressed doubt.
One individual responded to Wong’s tweet by suggesting that Drake only disclosed his appointment because it was leaked by crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie.
A day before Drake publicised his advisory role, Cobie had questioned Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin about the foundation staff’s connections with EigenLayer.
Another individual questioned Feist’s belief in the power of incentives, given that he was keeping 20 million for himself.
In her X post, Miyaguchi acknowledged that relying solely on culture and individual judgement had proven insufficient for maintaining the foundation’s credible neutrality.
She stated that a formal policy had been in the works for some time to address this issue and promised to provide more information soon.
Drake also revealed that a third member of the Ethereum Foundation was tied to EigenFoundation as an investor, without revealing their identity.
EigenLayer is a layer-2 restaking protocol for Ethereum that allows node operators and validators to earn fees by restaking liquid Ether (ETH) they received in exchange for staking.
These assets can be placed on EVM platforms like Lido or used to validate and secure other networks, such as sidechains or non-EVM blockchains, effectively allowing them to stake the same assets twice.
EigenLayer was partially launched on the mainnet in April after being introduced on the Ethereum Goerli testnet in April 2023.
