Following a controversy that erupted in May 2024, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake announced his resignation from the Eigen Foundation — the entity responsible for overseeing the development of the Eigenlayer restaking protocol — in a November 2 social media post.
Drake revealed that he stepped away from the Eigen Foundation advisor position in September 2024, and also left the Ultra Sound team. In his public apology to the Ethereum community, the researcher stated:
“Going forward, I will turn down all advisorships, angel investments, and security councils. This personal policy goes above and beyond the recent Ethereum Foundation-wide conflict of interest policy, not because that was asked of me, but because I want to signal a commitment to neutrality.”
Instead of taking on roles in other projects, Drake said he wished to focus his time and effort on developing Ethereum’s layer-1 network — particularly its consensus layer.
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Drake sparks controversy and is accused of conflict of interest
On May 19, 2024, Justin Drake announced that he accepted a paid advisory position at the Eigen Foundation — sparking controversy and backlash from the Ethereum community. In return for advising the Eigen Foundation, Drake claims to have received millions of dollars worth of EIGEN tokens.
At the time, the Ethereum Foundation researcher remarked that the value of the tokens was “More than the combined value of all my other assets,” and noted that his role would be limited to researching the various technical, protocol, and structural risks associated with restaking.
Drake also made it clear when he accepted the position that he would not be involved in the marketing of EigenLayer to the public.
Following Drake’s announcement, prominent Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist also began advising EigenLayer — drawing widespread criticism and further accusations of a conflict of interest.
The moves by Drake and Feist prompted the Ethereum Foundation to draft a conflict-of-interest policy to avoid similar controversies in the future and to quell the ensuing backlash from the Ethereum community.
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