Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, said on May 24 that the Foundation
The Ethereum Foundation will establish a policy on conflicts of interest, Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, said on May 24. The announcement was made in response to controversy within the cryptocurrency community regarding communications between the Foundation and the developers of EigenLayer.
Two Ethereum researchers joined the ranks of EigenFoundation’s paid advisors in the week before Miyaguchi’s announcement. Justin Drake announced his appointment to EigenFoundation on May 19 in a lengthy post. He said he would receive incentives from the EigenFoundation worth “millions of dollars” but would put back money in the Ethereum ecosystem. Dankrad Feist made a similar lengthy announcement the next day. Feist admitted to receiving “a large amount of tokens,” adding:
“I don’t think they will change or influence my positions on how the core protocol is developed, but I think the community should know, so they can hold me accountable.”
Both researchers stated that they were taking these positions in their personal capacity and not as representatives of the Ethereum Foundation. Drake promised to “continue to criticize EigenLayer,” and Feist said he would “take opposing views.” Reactions to the researchers’ efforts have been mixed. David Wong, co-founder of ZkSecurity, tweeted to X about Drake:
“This is next-level transparency. You really have to love the people at EF for their integrity. “I don’t know if we deserve these people.”
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But many commentators have expressed doubts. “Are you serious? “He only revealed it because Kobe leaked it,” someone replied to Wong. Cryptocurrency trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, questioned Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on the organization’s employee ties to EigenLayer the day before Drake announced his advisory role Another asked Vest:
“You keep the 20 million for yourself but you don’t believe in the power of incentives? (…) Very funny”
“It is clear that relying on culture and individual judgment has not been enough (to maintain the neutrality of a credible institution), and we have been working on a formal policy to resolve this problem for some time,” he said. Miyaguchi said in his X post. More information is promised soon.
A third member of the Ethereum Foundation has ties to the EigenFoundation as an investor, Drake said. He did not identify the person.
EigenLayer is a Layer 2 recovery protocol for Ethereum that allows Ethereum node operators and validators to earn fees by repossessing Liquid Ether (ETH) they received in exchange for staking. They can place these assets on EVM platforms like Lido – perhaps using ETH received on that platform – or validate and secure other networks, such as sidechains or non-EVM blockchains. They can therefore share the same assets twice.
EigenLayer launched on the Ethereum Goerli testnet in April 2023 and was partially launched on the mainnet in April.
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