Consensus Mechanisms
Resignation of Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake from Eigen Foundation
Sunday. November 3 at 5:30 AM
1 min. readIn November 2024, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake announced his resignation from the Eigen Foundation, which oversees the Eigenlayer restaking protocol. Drake had stepped down from his advisor position in September 2024 and also left the Ultra Sound team. He expressed his desire to focus on developing Ethereum's layer-1 network, specifically its consensus layer, instead of taking on roles in other projects. The controversy began in May 2024 when Drake accepted a paid advisory position at Eigen Foundation, receiving millions of dollars worth of EIGEN tokens. This sparked backlash from the Ethereum community, leading to the drafting of a conflict-of-interest policy by the Ethereum Foundation. The move by Drake and fellow researcher Dankrad Feist to advise EigenLayer raised concerns about conflicts of interest within the Ethereum community. The incident raised questions about the integrity of blockchain innovation in the context of Ethereum restaking.