Key Points
Dankrad Feist, a researcher for Ethereum, recently announced that he will be joining Eigenlayer as an adviser.
He follows the path of Justin Drake, another Ethereum researcher who made a similar move.
Feist clarified that his new role does not represent the Ethereum Foundation and will instead concentrate on risk and decentralization issues.
Community Reactions to Feist’s Decision
Feist’s announcement was met with a mix of criticism and support from the Ethereum community.
Concerns were raised about potential conflicts of interest, especially since Feist will receive a significant number of tokens from his new position.
Despite these concerns, Feist maintains that the token allocation will not influence his stance on core protocol development.
He believes that his new role could greatly benefit Ethereum, provided it is carried out by someone with high integrity.
Feist assured the community that he would not hesitate to voice concerns or resign from his position if he feels the integrity of the role is compromised.
While some community members expressed disappointment, others appreciated Feist’s transparency and speculated that the criticism might be due to negative perceptions of EigenLayer.
Lefteris Karapetsas, founder of Rotkiapp, was among those who expressed disappointment in Feist and Drake’s decisions.
He criticized the move as a clear conflict of interest and argued that it should not be tolerated.
Karapetsas was particularly concerned about the potential for the compensation to cloud their judgement, even if they promised otherwise.
Earlier, on May 19, Drake had announced his decision to become a paid adviser for EigenLayer, a role that would compensate him with millions of dollars worth of EIGEN tokens.
Despite acknowledging the potential risk to his personal reputation, Drake expressed his intention to guide EigenLayer from within.
