Yahya 
Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, has just revealed that he has accepted a position as an advisor for the EigenFoundation, the company behind the groundbreaking protocol EigenLayer. Drake, in a lengthy post on May 19, revealed that he receives an adviser fee worth millions of dollars in EIGEN tokens that are spread over three years. This sum totals more than the value of all his other holdings; this is an observation that has not escaped the cryptocurrency community.
Conflict of Interest Allegations
Debate on social media has complicated with Drake’s announcement stating about possible conflicts of interest connected with this position. Crypto trader and UpOnly podcaster Jordan Fish aka Cobie recently raised Essential Questions for Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin About Ethereum Foundation Paying Staff Millions From Projects That Might Compete With Ethereum. EigenLayer was also mentioned as a hypothetical example by Fish.
EigenLayer, which recently completed a partial mainnet release last month, offers services that enable users to stake liquid staked Ether (ETH), providing users an opportunity to stake ETH twice. Drake admitted to the perils of such a role, but he stressed his determination to further systematically analyze restaking risks and guide EigenLayer against them. ”Being an adviser means that I want to participate in restaking issues directly and influence EigenLayer’s decisions from the inside, without repeating the mistakes of the past concerning liquid staking,” Drake clarified.
Support for Transparency
However, some industry people have appreciated Drake for his openness. Polygon’s Hudson Jameson, David Wong, co-founder of zkSecurity, Robbie Nakarmi, Crypto Investments Director at Standard Chartered Ventures, and many others praised Drake for his transparency. In his post, Drake attempted to dispel concerns about EigenLayer’s intentions, stating, “The EF is a large organization with 300+ people. To my knowledge 3 EFers have a formal relationship with EigenLayer entities: one as an early EigenLabs investor, and two as recent EigenFoundation advisors. “
Drake was sure that he did not imagine the 1% of Ethereum foundation members participating in EigenLayer sacrificing their morality. He also stated that he is willing to let go of his advisory position if EigenLayer’s progress ever becomes a threat to Ethereum’s development.
In other recent news, EigenLayer, a decentralized storage project that had received much criticism from its users for implementing a very restrictive token redistribution program, had reacted to this criticism by airdropping 28 million additional EIGEN tokens to its users.
Justin Drake’s recent appointment as a Terra researcher is a case study of how individual and collective goals can and should intersect amid the revolutionary change in the blockchain industry. The future of the industry and the accountability of the most influential characters will always be a concern for the community.