Why EigenLayer Gave Away More Tokens After Widespread Criticism of Its Stakedrop

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EigenLayer has been in the news this week after it announced its ‘stakedrop,’ where it will distribute EIGEN tokens to early users of the restaking platform.

Sreeram Kannan, founder and CEO of EigenLayer, and Robert Drost, CEO and executive director of the Eigen Foundation, discuss the launch of the token, a “universal intersubjective work token” and how it allows for slashing, or penalizing, for externally observable faults, such as data unavailability. The Eigen Foundation, a non-profit entity based in the Cayman Islands, was also recently established to grow the protocol and assist in creating a decentralized community.

They also address criticisms of the token's launch, including geoblocking and the initial non-transferability of stakedrops for the community, and explain why they decided to allocate an additional 100 EIGEN tokens for all participants in the stakedrop. Plus, they reveal a target date by which a decision about the token unlock date should be made.

Show highlights:

• The buzz around the universal intersubjective work token and what it was created for
• What constitutes the digital commons and its two primary characteristics
• How the EIGEN token is designed to prevent the necessity of forking an entire blockchain
• Whether dapps should evolve into AVSes and EigenLayer’s complementary role to Ethereum, not replace it
• Why the Eigen Foundation was established and how it differs from Eigen Labs
• Robert's response to the criticism regarding the exclusion of certain countries
• Why EIGEN will be distributed linearly, despite it potentially favoring whales
• EigenLayer's announcement of an updated stakedrop, after listening to community feedback
• The critique of the vesting schedule and Robert's explanation of when the lock period starts
• Why Sreeram believes that transfer restrictions are beneficial and empowering for users
• What the next steps are for EigenLayer
  

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Guests |

Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer

Previous appearance on Unchained:

Why EigenLayer May Be the Most Innovative New Ecosystem Since Ethereum

Do You Need to Think Twice Before Restaking Your Assets?

Robert Drost, CEO and executive director of the Eigen Foundation

Links |

Airdrop:

Introducing the Eigen Foundation, EIGEN token and Season 1 Stakedrop

• Robert Drost’s threadon the Eigen Foundation
• Viktor Bunin’s thread on the token
• Unchained:
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Reaction

• CoinDesk: Why Eigenlayer’s Airdrop Is Controversial
• Unchained: 5 Reasons E-Beggars Are Not Happy With EigenLayer’s Airdrop
  

Learn more:

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Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC. Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz.