Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake Quits EigenLayer Advisory Role, Here’s Why

Less than six months after disclosing his advisory role at EigenLayer, Ethereum Foundation Justin Drake has decided to relinquish the same position. This comes amidst backlash from members of the crypto community who raised concerns of a conflict of interest.

No EigenLayer (EIGEN) Token Vested

In recent time, it turns out that there may be deep divisions within the Ethereum community. This confusion involve some of its most prominent figures. Most of them are concerned about the industry’s still-developing norms concerning conflicts of interest.

Justin Drake claimed that he negotiated the role in good faith. Unfortunately, many have found it difficult to reconcile the EigenLayer position with his responsibility at Ethereum.

Drake also apologized to the community and his colleagues at the Ethereum Foundation. “In hindsight it was a bad move for me to make,” he added. Drake also confirmed that his advisorship got terminated even before any of his EIGEN tokens had been vested.

“Going forward I will turn down all advisorships, angel investments, and security councils,” Drake said on X. “This personal policy goes above and beyond the recent EF-wide conflict of interest policy, not because that was asked of me but because I want to signal commitment to neutrality.”

TLDR: I dropped the EigenLayer advisorship, left the ultra sound team, and made other changes to double down on neutrality and focus on L1 research and coordination.

In September I let go of the EigenFoundation advisorship. I want to apologise to the Ethereum community and EF…

— Justin Ðrake 🦇🔊 (@drakefjustin) November 2, 2024

Controversy About Justin Drake and Conflict of Interest

Dankrad Feist, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, has joined Drake to tender their resignation from EigenLayer. Both developers have worked with the cryptocurrency project for a few years. EigenLayer serves as a platform where crypto applications can “borrow” Ethereum’s security. It harnesses a novel concept known as “restaking.”

In May, Drake and Feist disclosed an advisory role at Eigen Foundation, a pivot which came with a corresponding token allocation. However, the atmosphere became heated after discussions about potential conflicts of interest between EigenLayer and his employer, the Ethereum Foundation, arose. At the time, core devs and researchers at the organization were consistently taking advisory roles with other projects.

While the public voiced their concerns about the supposed double-mindedness, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to X to say he was proud that Ethereum did not have a culture of preventing people from speaking their minds. He highlighted that even negative opinions regarding the protocol or its ecosystem were allowed to be said.