The biggest news in the Ethereum ecosystem over the weekend was that two Ethereum researchers, Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, announced their resignation from the restaking protocol EigenLayer and stated they would refocus their efforts on the development of the Ethereum mainnet. After this incident, we may see more Ethereum core developers start to pay attention to issues of conflict of interest. In fact, as pointed out in reports two months ago, there was no conflict of interest within Ethereum, as many people from the Ethereum Foundation were working on the Optimistic rollup project.
(Ethereum developers discuss developmental predicaments, exposing that Ethereum has deviated from the right track)
Ethereum Foundation researcher causes a stir by receiving project tokens
Justin Drake issued a statement on Twitter indicating that he primarily resigns from the advisory position at EigenLayer due to principles of neutrality and will leave the entire team. He mentioned that he had resigned from the advisory position at EigenFoundation as early as September and expressed a desire to apologize to the Ethereum community and his colleagues at EigenFoundation for the farce he caused. He acknowledged that, in hindsight, this was a poor move for everyone.
In May of this year, Ethereum researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist simultaneously announced their appointment as advisors to EigenLayer. At that time, they acknowledged that they would receive a large number of tokens due to this position, but they believed this did not constitute a conflict of interest, and the farce Justin Drake mentioned is likely referring to this matter.
Researchers collectively resign from advisory positions, declaring neutrality and no longer engaging
Justin Drake stated that he will refuse all offers for consulting, angel investments, and security committees in the future. He mentioned that no one asked him to do this; it is based on his own commitment to neutrality.
Justin Drake also pointed out that Ethereum's antifragility has always been a recurring source of inspiration, and the team always finds ways to become stronger. Challenges are ahead in 2024. He optimistically believes that 2025 will be a fantastic year for Ethereum and a vibrant year for L1 development. He looks forward to meeting friends at Devcon.
Dankrad Feist also wrote on Twitter: 'I have decided to resign from my advisory position at Eigenlayer. While I believe this role is dedicated to good faith negotiation to ensure Eigenlayer maintains a good relationship with Ethereum, I know that people have different views on this relationship, and for many, the resulting conflicts of interest are difficult to resolve.'
And he stated: 'Eigenlayer is a fantastic project, and I hope it can continue to help Ethereum well in many aspects. However, there is still a lot of important work to be done for Ethereum, and I will focus all my efforts on completing it. This will enable me to implement Danksharding and other important projects more effectively.'
This article regarding Ethereum researchers resigning from their advisory roles at EigenLayer, ensuring no further project work, first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
