EigenLayer’s paid role of Ethereum dev sparks debate over ‘conflicting incentives’
An Ethereum Foundation researcher's decision to take a paid advisory role to the foundation behind Eigenlayer has sparked criticism on social media, with one commenter suggesting it could create “conflicting incentives.”
In a long post on May 19, X explained that Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has taken on an advisory role at the EigenFoundation, which is worth “millions of dollars” over three years and “comes with an incentive for the EIGEN token that is more significant than all the combined value of my other assets.”
EigenLayer is a protocol that partially launched on the mainnet last month and allows users to hold liquid Ether (ETH) tokens — tokens generated for ETH held in a protocol like Lido — effectively doubling ETH.
Drake said he took the role on the condition that he was limited to investigating recidivism risks, and that his default position would be to “continue to criticize Eigenlayer,” adding that the role “inevitably comes with risks beyond my personal reputation.”
“As a consultant, I hope to have a front-row seat to re-iterate issues and guide EigenLayer internally,” Drake wrote. “I feel like I've done too little, too late when it comes to liquidation. This is your chance to avoid making the same mistake again.
A day earlier, Kobe-based crypto trader and co-host of UpOnly, Jordan Asa, asked Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin for his thoughts on the Ethereum Foundation's “life-changing” staff. [monetary] Packages “may have incentives that conflict with Ethereum” from projects – giving EigenLayer as a theoretical example.
On the other hand, others, including Polygon's administrative vice president Hudson Jameson, ZxSecurity co-founder David Wong, and Standard Chartered Ventures director of crypto investments Robbie Nakarmi, praised Drake's transparency.
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In his X post, Drake aims to debunk claims that Eigenlayer is systematically trying to ‘bribe' or ‘corrupt' the Ethereum Foundation.
“EF is a large organization of 300+ people,” he wrote, “To my knowledge, 3 EFers have formal relationships with EigenLayer entities: one as an early EigenLabs investor and two as recent EigenFoundation advisors.”
He added that “the 1% of EFers who regularly engage with EigenLayer have not seen them compromise their ethics” and that he is ready to “terminate the advisor at any time”, for example if EigenLayer moves in the direction of “Ethereum use”.
In early May, EigenLayer offered 28 million more EIGEN tokens to users after facing backlash from users who claimed the program was too restrictive.
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