Two Ethereum Foundation researchers, Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, revealed the decision to abandon their advisory positions at EigenLayer. Both experts took on this role with the Resumption Protocol earlier in May 2024 – but much to the disappointment of the crypto community.
As Bitcoinist reports, prominent crypto figures have made the decision to join EigenLayer as advisors, with Drake specifically promising to reinvest his earnings into the ETH ecosystem. Nonetheless, the crypto community on social media platform X has raised concerns over conflicts of interest surrounding the appointment of Ethereum researchers.
Justin Drake apologizes to the Ethereum community and foundation
In a November 2 article on X, Justin Drake announced that he had left his advisory role at EigenLayer in September 2024 and had also left the Ultra Sound team. The researcher also apologized to the Ethereum community and his colleagues at the foundation for the controversy surrounding his appointment.
Drake added in the post:
In the future, I will refuse all advice, angel investments and security advice. This personal policy goes beyond the recent EF (Ethereum Foundation)-wide conflict of interest policy, not because I was asked to do so but because I want to point out (a) a commitment to neutrality.
As Drake’s post points out, the switch to Eigenlayer by the two researchers forced the Ethereum Foundation to develop a conflict of interest policy in order to avoid the recurrence of such incidents. Following these steps, Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi was the first to indicate the foundation’s commitment to resolving the issue of conflicts of interest.
Source: AyaMiyagotchi/X
More Danksharding upgrades?
Oddly, Dankrad Feist published a message on X at the same time announcing his decision to resign from his advisory role at EigenLayer. The famous creator of the “Danksharding” concept reiterated that although the contract was negotiated in good faith, he understands that the relationship with EigenLayer can easily be misunderstood.
Feist noted:
Eigenlayer is a great project that I hope will continue to complement Ethereum well in many ways. But Ethereum has a lot of important work to do and I will focus all my attention on getting it done. This will allow me to be more efficient in implementing Danksharding and other important projects.
These announcements garnered positive responses from the crypto community on Platform X, with several notable figures calling their decision to leave EigenLayer a good one.
The price of ETH under bearish pressure on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView
