We spoke with Eigen Foundation CEO Robert Drost about EigenLayer’s 2024 launch and airdrops, as well as the future of Ethereum, restaking, and crypto AI.
Introduction
EigenLayer allows Ethereum validators to restake their ETH, securing additional services that improve capital efficiency and broaden the scope of decentralized trust.
EigenLayer's slashing testnet went live on Dec. 20, 2024, marking a significant step towards its mainnet launch, pending approval of the EigenLayer Improvement Protocol. This has marked the latest development in a seismic year for the revolutionary Ethereum staking protocol, with its $EIGEN token launch resulting in one the most anticipated airdrops of the year in early 2024.
Robert Drost, Ph.D., is the CEO of the Eigen Foundation, which is responsible for the advancement of EigenLayer and has played a crucial role in advocating for intersubjective governance within blockchain networks. His initiatives aim to create a more integrated and resource-efficient ecosystem for DApps and have established EigenLayer as a significant contributor to the development of blockchain technology and governance frameworks.
Earlier we spoke with him during Token2049 Singapore about a myriad of topics, including the future of EigenLayer and Ethereum.
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On EigenLayer
What problems is EigenLayer solving?
Drost: We've been doing restaking since early 2022, and the ideas were all there already. It's taken a while for people to understand, and that's okay with us. We're building something quite new in crypto, and now we’ve got a lot of company, which is great. People understand restaking, much like staking—these are all ways that allow crypto to have new methods to actually secure crypto and provide new ways to get rewarded.
Ethereum is already quite good at layers one and two. I would frame EigenLayer as something that enhances Ethereum and its token protocols, expanding it into a much richer space than what you can do with regular blockchain VMs. It expands crypto security into the entire computing market—covering every possible software and company out there.
What makes ETH staking so appealing?
Drost: Staking is a great innovation because, rather than just putting funds somewhere passively, staking in crypto makes you more active. You're taking your funds, and staking means you're helping to ensure something is available. Crypto allows you to have trustless security or some kind of decentralized protocol.
How has Eigen’s restaking improved the staking model?
Drost: Staking is great, but there's a fundamental difference versus conventional company systems. Imagine you’re dealing with company XYZ. The reason you trust it is because you say, "Well, IBM doesn't go bankrupt," or "AWS servers don’t go down." If they do, there’s not much recourse because of complex legal agreements.
The frictionless part of crypto is that staking explicitly adjudicates penalties and rewards on-chain. Just like Bitcoin created the idea of trustless money, Ethereum added the idea that you can now trustlessly ensure that something happens. If it doesn’t happen or you don't uphold your promises, you're going to lose the funds you put up. If it does go well, you’ll get a small reward for it. Over time, you can accumulate more.
Regular staking actually costs a lot compared to reputation-based companies, which don’t typically pay anything. Staking involves a couple of percentage points here and there, so we need something more efficient. Restaking allows you to take the same capital that was staked once and use it to secure more things—maybe one more thing, or five, or 10.
When the capital efficiency of staking improves, two things happen: those renting pay less, and on the other side, you accumulate more rewards, so your total rewards go up. It’s a win-win on both sides.
Could you differentiate between restaking and liquid staking?
Drost: Liquid staking is when people who are locking something want to have a trusted pool. They put their assets into an operator, who's an expert. The operator says, "I’m going to make the attestations. I’m going to do the work." In exchange, they give you a token representing your ownership of the shared stake they’re securing and working on for you, and they take a small fee for that.
We’re familiar with projects like Rocket Pool and liquid stake tokens that allow people to put their token out, but they’re not restaking. Instead, they’re bringing it into other DeFi protocols. EigenLayer allows you to still work, and then you can put it in DeFi protocols again. It’s like Ethereum staking gives you one level of value, and restaking stacks on top of that.
Bitcoin maximalists say “Ethereum has a centralization risk,” due to concentrated staking pools. What’s your argument for that?
Drost: Inside the crypto space, people sort of throw these fireballs at each other. You’ve seen that criticism pointed at Ethereum historically. The healthy way to think about it is that all these significant, well-known protocols collectively are much better than the existing system we have.
Bitcoin has a valuable feature—they’re not going to upgrade or change the protocol. Ethereum, on the other hand, was created by a team with the view that over time, the protocol would need to be modified.
It’s just a different choice of community. Some people should absolutely stick with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is being enhanced outside the core protocol, which is great. Ethereum, however, is starting to ossify—becoming more solid—and eventually, it will probably look very much like Bitcoin in its end state, not changing much. At that point, protocols like EigenLayer will provide the ability for the space to continue adapting.
The Eigen Airdrops (1 and 2)
What went right and wrong with EIGEN's first airdrop?
Dr. Drost: For the first airdrop, there was a lot of anticipation and excitement. But in the end, the good thing is that the core people who really believe in the protocol stuck around. We remained solidly in the top five in terms of numbers.
The airdrop itself was 6.7% of the token supply, around 12 million tokens, distributed to over 200,000 addresses. There were also pool operators creating liquid restaked tokens who received a portion, but I don’t know the exact numbers.
How did Sybil attacks impact your airdrop?
Dr. Drost: Sybil attacks are always a concern. We worked with firms that do statistical on-chain analysis, but because it's an arms race, the methods aren’t disclosed. If we tell people how we conduct airdrop analysis, Sybil attackers would adjust their tactics.
Every airdrop sees some Sybil activity, but I take solace in the fact that many high-quality users who deserved an airdrop received one.
What is Eigen’s second airdrop (AKA StakeDrop)?
Drost: In September we announced our second airdrop, which is 4.2% of the token supply—about 8.6 million tokens. The claim period opened mid-September and will stay open for six months until March 16, 2025, but nobody should wait.
To claim tokens, users can:
- Go to the EigenLayer web app Dashboard
- Click the Claim Rewards button
- Select the tokens to claim rewards for, or click Select All
What qualifies you for the airdrop?
Drost: The first airdrop was purely for stakers—people who put assets into the protocol—and also some who tested the validator side, running testnets. We have thousands of supporters, and it’s been heartwarming to receive so much support, including critical feedback. We listen closely and try to improve. Even Vitalik Buterin pointed out that EigenLayer had addressed specific concerns, and he was pleasantly surprised by the improvements.
Our second airdrop has been referred to as the "stakedrop" campaign and is a distribution of 86 million EIGEN tokens to contributors and stakers of the protocol:
- 70 million tokens to Stakers and Operators
- 10 million tokens to Ecosystem Partners such as AVSs, liquid staking protocols, and other key contributors
- 6 million tokens to Community Members such as early advocates and contributors
The Future of Ethereum and EigenLayer
Ethereum introduced proto-danksharding this year. How will danksharding improve Ethereum?
Drost: Danksharding is going to make Ethereum a lot more effective, increasing capacity from 180 kilobytes per second to around 1.5 megabytes per second. Our protocol, EigenDA, launched with 15 megabytes per second, which is 100 times faster than Ethereum. We’re already indexing every major blockchain, consuming less than 50% of our current bandwidth.
Our roadmap aims to reach hundreds of megabytes and gigabytes of data availability. This will allow Ethereum to truly fulfill the original "world computer" ideal, with EigenLayer enabling internet-scale blockchain technology.
How much did the Ethereum spot ETF approval surprise you this year?
Drost: I was a little surprised that the Ethereum ETF went through so quickly, but the reason why it makes sense to actually have sensible, effective laws around crypto that fit into the financial system: tens of millions of Americans and people around the world actually like and want to use crypto.
It actually solves beneficial problems like people taking and owning your data, people monopolizing your identity, people trying to force you to pay attention to things you don't want or force radicalization on you. Crypto solves those issues and also allows people to take part in ownership and the value of what they're creating as a user and consumer.
Do you foresee ETFs introducing staking yield?
Drost: I have an opinion like a lot of other people, but I can't really speak on that. I do know that people at the Ethereum Foundation and a lot of others are trying to work this out very hard. The trade-off is, obviously, if there is actual yield and use of yields in these types of things, it's beneficial. But the risky part is that staking implies the ability to get slashed. ETFs should not have that risk.
Where do you see Ethereum and EigenLayer in a couple of years?
Drost: We initially thought it would take a year and a half to have 15 protocols built on us. We’re already in the hundreds. Blockchain evolves at an exponential rate—it’s the fastest-growing technology. In two or three years, I expect restaking mechanisms will be adopted by core security assets like Ethereum and even Bitcoin.
Developers should build software as they do now. Instead of creating everything from scratch, they’ll find that decentralized resources are available for them to use. They can easily attach these resources to their software.
What about regulations? Are they becoming more favorable?
Drost: Sensible regulation with clarity is essential. The U.S. legislative bodies are now starting to engage with the technology and address the gaps between outdated regulations and new technology. It’s a step in the right direction.
Where do you see the relationship between AI and crypto going?
Drost: I actually came into crypto because of AI.
I'm positive on AI, but I'm not positive on corporate-owned entities using data. I realized the only thing that could really make AI beneficial for humanity in the long term, without creating the dystopia we all talk about, is that crypto can actually build the cage of your design around AI. That is not possible to do with any other kind of technology. You can't falsify digital cryptography.
Is it the responsibility of Ethereum and other chains to protect us against potential AI risks?
Drost: The responsibility of crypto-based protocols is to provide immutable trust in records—records that cannot be deleted. They are meant to be like a permanent store of historical information. On top of that, they're transparent and not censorable. Not full data exposed, but everything fully transparent.
I believe that when we look back at why humans won with technology, they're going to say, "Thank goodness that blockchain and AI happened at about the same time."
If we didn't have that, AI could have turned into one of the dystopian scenarios that science fiction writers have been warning us about.
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