Ethereum Foundation says it's working to address potential conflicts of interest

Ethereum ETH -2.43% Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi said the organization is accelerating work on a formal policy to address potential conflicts of interest after two of its researchers disclosed receiving “significant” EigenLayer token incentives.

“The Ethereum Foundation’s credible neutrality is critical for us to perform our role in the ecosystem. We are aware of the current conversation about potential conflicts of interest, and share the community’s concerns,” Miyaguchi posted to X on Friday.

“It is clear that relying on culture and individual judgment has not been sufficient, and we have been working on a formal policy to address this problem for a while now. We will be accelerating this work, and will share an update soon,” Miyaguchi added.

In response, Lefteris Karapetsas, former Ethereum software engineer and founder of the crypto portfolio tracking tool Rotki, said the Ethereum Foundation should compensate its colleagues sufficiently so they “don't find it necessary to seek extra compensation packages from somewhere else.”

Ethereum Foundation researchers disclose 'significant' EigenLayer incentives

On May 19, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake disclosed receiving a "significant" Eigen token incentive after recently becoming an advisor to the Eigen Foundation.

The disclosure followed a discourse between Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, about potential conflicts of interest between EigenLayer and his employer, the Ethereum Foundation, arising from core devs and researchers at the organization taking advisory roles.

“The advisorship comes with a significant EIGEN token incentive which could easily be worth more than the combined value of all my other assets (mostly ETH),” Drake said at the time. “We're talking millions of dollars of tokens vesting over 3 years.”

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The Ethereum Foundation researcher went on to pledge that he would “reinject” all the proceeds into “worthy” projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, either as investments or donations.

The researcher also noted he only took on the role on the condition that his mandate was limited to researching restaking risks, adding that his default public stance would continue to lean critical of EigenLayer.

Two days later, fellow Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist also disclosed that he had recently become an advisor to EigenLayer, under the same conditions as Drake. However, Feist did not mention any similar investment or donation commitments in his post.

“I am taking this position personally, not representing the Ethereum Foundation, and with a focus on risks and decentralization,” Feist wrote . “I am therefore fully expected to take contrarian views on EigenLayer.”

When Drake made the disclosure, he said three people at the Ethereum Foundation had a formal relationship with EigenLayer — one as an investor and two as advisors. Assuming Feist was the other advisor Drake was referring to, the investor has yet to come forward.

EigenLayer is a platform that lets users deposit and “re-stake” ether from various liquid staking tokens, aiming to allocate those funds to secure third-party networks or actively validated services.