Aya Miyaguchi

Executive director Aya Miyaguchi said the foundation’s neutrality can’t depend on culture and individual judgment after researchers take multimillion-dollar roles at EigenLayer.

The Ethereum Foundation will institute a policy on conflicts of interest, executive director Aya Miyaguchi said on May 24. The announcement came in response to controversy in the crypto community over connections between the foundation and EigenLayer developers.

Two Ethereum researchers joined the ranks of paid advisers at the EigenFoundation in the week preceding Miyaguchi’s announcement. Justin Drake announced his appointment at EigenFoundation on May 19 in a lengthy X post. He said he would receive incentives from EigenFoundation worth “millions of dollars” but would reinject the money in the Ethereum ecosystem. Dankrad Feist made a similar long announcement the following day. Feist acknowledged receiving “a significant amount of tokens,” adding:

Both researchers said they were taking the posts personally and not as representatives of the Ethereum Foundation. Drake promised “to continue to lean critical of EigenLayer,” and Feist said he would “take contrarian views.” Reaction to the researchers’ moves was mixed. ZkSecurity co-founder David Wong tweeted on X about Drake:

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