The Ethereum Foundation is pursuing the development of a formal policy to address potential conflicts of interest. The move comes after the foundation revealed that two of its researchers had received “significant” incentives in EigenLayer tokens.
Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi shared in her statement today that the organization's trusted neutrality is crucial to its role in the ecosystem. He addressed the ongoing discussion about potential conflicts of interest and expressed concerns shared with the community.
Miyaguchi said in his statement:
“It is clear that relying on culture and individual decisions is not enough, and we have been working on an official policy to address this issue for some time. “We will expedite this work and share an update soon.”
In response, Lefteris Karapetsas, a former Ethereum software engineer and founder of crypto portfolio tracking tool Rotki, suggested that the Ethereum Foundation should adequately pay his colleagues. This way, they would not need to look for additional compensation packages elsewhere, according to Karapetsas.
On May 19, Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, announced that he had recently received a “significant” Eigen token incentive after becoming an advisor to the Eigen Foundation.
Drake promised to “reinvest” all proceeds as investments or donations into “valuable” projects in the ETH ecosystem. He also stated that he had undertaken the advisory role only on the condition that his role was limited to investigating restaking risks.
Two days later, Dankrad Feist, another researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, also revealed that he had recently become an advisor to EigenLayer under the same circumstances as Drake.
*This is not investment advice.
