Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake Takes on Advisory Role at Eigenlayer

Researcher Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation disclosed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he has taken on an advisory role at Eignelayer and the significant incentives in EIGEN token allocation potentially worth millions of dollars vesting over 3 years.

I recently became an advisor to the EigenFoundation. I feel the community deserves transparency so here is an extended disclosure :)

1) The advisorship comes with a significant EIGEN token incentive which could easily be worth more than the combined value of all my other assets…

— Justin Ðrake 🦇🔊 (@drakefjustin) May 19, 2024

Drake stated that there is a significant EIGEN token incentive associated with the advisorship, which is likely worth more than the total of all of my other assets put together (mostly ETH). 

The disclosure of this information has caused a rift in the cryptocurrency community regarding EigenLayer's influence over the Ethereum Foundation and possible conflicts of interest. Drake, in an attempt to calm this, explained that he pledged to reinvest all advisorship earnings, whether in the form of donations or investments, back into deserving Ethereum ecosystem projects. He is also prepared to terminate the advisorship at any point, for example, if EigenLayer takes a turn that he believes is not in Ethereum's best interests.

He further stated that it was a difficult decision to accept the role, and it was a tough decision before he could accept the Eigen Foundation advisorship. According to him, he has probably rejected over 100 so far. Sreeram Kannan first discussed the idea of an advisorship in March 2023, and it took a year for discussions to conclude, he added.

The disclosure followed an explanation on the condition of the advisorship given to Drake at EigenLayer: he is required to stay off of marketing materials and that his research be limited to restaking risks. 

He added,Given my focus on restaking risks, you can expect my default public stance to continue to lean critical of EigenLayer. I will try to make my criticism constructive, advocating for mitigations to risks like the erosion of solo validators and the intersubjective overloading of Ethereum consensus.``

Drake addressed concerns that EigenLayer might be trying to systematically bribe or corrupt the Ethereum Foundation (EF). The EF is now a large organization employing more than 300 people. Three EFers, one as an early EigenLabs investor and the other two as recent EigenFoundation advisors, are formally associated with EigenLayer entities, to the best of his knowledge. He noted that a lot of people have the highest integrity and don't think that the 1% of Efers officially affiliated with EigneLayer have compromised their morals in any way.

In his advisory capacity, Drake highlighted that it would be done in an individual capacity. His work life as an Ethereum researcher comes first, not as an EF researcher. 

EigenLayer is a platform that lets users re-stake their Ethereum to protect external networks. It has gained attention because of how it distributes its tokens and how it might affect the Ethereum ecosystem.

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