Ethereum Developer’s Role in EigenLayer Sparks Community Debate

On May 19, Ethereum developer Justin Drake disclosed his role as an advisor to the independent non-profit Eigen Foundation, a revelation that elicited mixed reactions from the community.

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

“The advisorship comes with a significant EIGEN token incentive, which could easily exceed the combined value of all my other assets (mainly ETH),” the developer wrote.

According to him, the tokens are valued at “millions of dollars, distributed over three years.” Drake has committed to directing all received funds “towards worthy projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, either as investments or donations.”

“I am also ready to terminate [the collaboration] at any time, for instance, if EigenLayer takes a direction that I believe contradicts Ethereum’s interests,” he added.

Drake emphasized his selectiveness in advisory roles, noting that discussions with the project spanned over a year. His responsibilities are limited to risk research and do not include promotion, while his stance towards EigenLayer remains critical.

“As a researcher, I feel I did too little too late regarding liquid staking. This is an opportunity not to repeat the mistake with restaking,” Drake wrote.

The developer also refuted claims that EigenLayer is systematically attempting to “bribe” or “corrupt” the Ethereum Foundation.

“EF is a large organization with over 300 employees,” he wrote. “As far as I know, three EF employees have official relationships with EigenLayer entities: one as an early investor in EigenLabs, and two as recent advisors to the Eigen Foundation.”

Community Reaction

Drake’s post drew mixed comments from users. One noted that such disclosure “should be a model for the industry going forward.”

Best disclosure I’ve ever seen. Should be a model for the industry going forward. Speaks to the integrity of both you, @sreeramkannan, and the entire Eigen team.

— Hart Lambur (?,?) (@hal2001) May 19, 2024

zkSecurity co-founder David Wong praised Drake for his transparency. However, one user pointed out that opinion leader Cobie was the first to report the developer’s collaboration with the Eigen Foundation.

Are you serious? He only disclosed it because Cobie leaked it https://t.co/Si2nQZlXrG

— eMon (@0xemon) May 19, 2024

A day before Drake’s publication, Cobie asked Vitalik Buterin how he felt about Ethereum Foundation developers accepting “life-changing packages of dollars from projects built on Ethereum to become ‘advisors,’ even though these projects may have conflicting incentives with Ethereum.” He cited EigenLayer as a theoretical example.

That’s good. On that note…

How do you feel about Ethereum Foundation core developers or researchers taking life-changing $ packages from projects built on Ethereum to become “advisors”, when those projects may have conflicted incentives with Ethereum, either now or in the…

— cobie ) ) ) ) (@cobie) May 18, 2024

Web3 researcher Emmanuel Awosika reminded of the “capitalist world of the free market.”

I’m seeing responses to this tweet, and that’s why I fear Ethereum is cooked. We’re all so caught up in a weird (faux?) anti-capitalist meme and convincing ourselves that “Ya, money is bad and it’s better to remain pure and untouched because money corrupts”. You realize that you… https://t.co/WudL2Q4O90

— Emmanuel Awosika⚡ (@eawosikaa) May 19, 2024

“You may not have heard this before, but money is not the root of all evil,” he wrote.

In response, Cobie noted that Drake disclosed the information the day after he questioned Buterin.

Is that what happened? Or the disclosure was always going to happen, and the person who disclosed it gleaned the information and shared it publicly first?

The discussions had been going on for more than a year, so I expect word must have found its way out at some point.…

— Emmanuel Awosika⚡ (@eawosikaa) May 20, 2024

“The discussions had been going on for more than a year, so I expect word must have found its way out at some point. Plausible scenario?” Awosika retorted.

The tweet from Drake received positive reactions from Polygon’s Vice President of Governance Hudson Jameson and Standard Chartered Ventures’ Director of Cryptocurrency Investments Robbie Nakarmi. 

According to DeFi Llama, the TVL of EigenLayer, which emerged in January, had approached $16 billion by April amid ecosystem expansion. At the time of writing, the figure had adjusted to $15.3 billion.

In February, protocol co-founder Sreeram Kannan stated that the project had no plans for a token launch. By late April, the team announced an EIGEN airdrop. The first distribution phase began in May.

In the same month, reports emerged that the founders of the DeFi platform Lido were supporting EigenLayer’s competitor, Symbiotic.