Recently, the Ethereum ecosystem has been criticized by the community for its lack of progress and new narratives. Renowned KOL Cobie recently questioned Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, about the high “consulting fees” charged by members of the Ethereum Foundation, which could harm the interests of the community.
Lately, users in the community have been criticizing the Ethereum ecosystem for not making any progress in this bull market. Apart from the Re-staking narrative, there are no projects worth spending high gas fees to participate in.
In the previous bull market, due to the catalysts of the DeFi and NFT markets, the average transaction fees often reached 100-200 gwei. However, in this bull market, very few people are participating in Ethereum ecosystem projects, resulting in gas prices of Ethereum staying below 10 gwei recently. As of now, the gas price is reported to be 3 gwei.
Regarding the criticism from the outside world, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, expressed his pride in the freedom of expression that Ethereum provides to people on the community platform X. Although Vitalik praised the freedom of expression that the public has about Ethereum, the free speech under his tweet has sparked controversy.
One of the controversies is the conflict of interest for Ethereum Foundation members who hold dual positions. Renowned crypto KOL Cobie, with 723,000 followers on the community platform X, commented below Vitalik’s tweet, saying, “This statement immediately sparked a heated discussion among many community members. Some people believe that it is normal for consultants to receive salaries, while others believe that there are many potential risks in hiring internal Ethereum Foundation personnel as ‘consultants’.”
Furthermore, Cobie further gave an example of the conflict of interest that Ethereum Foundation personnel might face. Foundation researchers admit that they are discussing a million-dollar reward with EigenFoundation.
As of the deadline, Vitalik Buterin has not responded to Cobie’s comments. However, as Cobie’s remarks continue to spread, Justin Drake, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, tweeted on the 19th, stating that he has just become a consultant for EigenFoundation and is in discussions for a multi-million dollar consulting incentive fee over three years.
However, Justin Drake promised to reinvest the incentive fee into Ethereum ecosystem projects or donations. If the project moves in a direction that is not favorable to Ethereum, he will also terminate the consulting position.
At the same time, Justin Drake also stated that the Ethereum Foundation is an organization with over 300 people. To his knowledge, three Foundation members have formal relationships with EigenLayer, one as an early investor and two as EigenFoundation consultants. However, he believes that the Ethereum Foundation members he knows all have high moral standards and would not engage in unethical behavior.
However, even in an organization with over 300 people, even if most members have the high moral standards described by Justin Drake, is it worth considering and continuing to observe whether a small number of members may act against the interests of Ethereum due to their own interests?
Related Reports
Vitalik Buterin’s latest article: ETH does not need to be the fastest L1, continuous improvement of Ethereum security and decentralization
Combining Bitcoin security with Ethereum smart contracts, “BOB” technology features and ecosystem analysis
Bitcoin fails to break through $67,000, this week’s market focus: SEC reviewing Ethereum ETF, Fed officials’ speeches, Nvidia’s financial report…