Introducing the Protocol Council

Eigen Foundation

• 4 min read
Introducing the Protocol Council

Today, the Eigen Foundation is proud to introduce the Protocol Council, a newly formed multi-stakeholder group tasked with overseeing EigenLayer’s protocol governance. This announcement builds on last week’s unveiling of EigenGov, which establishes councils as a core component of our governance system—bringing together trusted, high-context domain experts to guide EigenLayer’s evolution.

The EigenLayer protocol and EIGEN token exist as a set of mostly upgradeable smart contracts on Ethereum. The goal of the Eigen Foundation is to ultimately transition control over upgrades to these contracts to community contributors via EigenGov, EigenLayer’s governance system. The first step of that journey begins with the Protocol Council.

The goal of the Protocol Council is to maintain protocol security by reviewing and approving EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) and ensuring all proposed improvements advance the protocol and responsibly support the growth of the EigenLayer ecosystem.

The Protocol Council will control a Gnosis Safe with a 3-of-5 threshold configuration. It will include five initial council members from across the EigenLayer ecosystem, although it may be expanded over time. Of these five initial members, two represent the Eigen Foundation, alongside three independent (external) members sourced from the greater EigenLayer community. The initial cohort of external members will be as follows:

Sigma Prime is a leading blockchain security and research firm, born with the vision of conducting the most comprehensive security research and applying it to the Blockchain industry to boost safe innovation. They perform in depth security assessments for leading Web3 protocols and applications whilst building and maintaining Lighthouse, a prominent Ethereum consensus client, responsible for over 30% of the blocks produced on Mainnet. Sigma Prime has been providing security assessment services to EigenLayer and its burgeoning ecosystem for over 2 years. They also sit on the Polygon Protocol Council.

Unit 410 is a service provider to crypto-forward institutions and offers noncustodial cold storage, self-custody wallets, and staking solutions. It has operated at the forefront of crypto security and staking for over 6 years, runs several EigenLayer operators, and has been highly engaged with the EigenLayer ecosystem since pre-launch. 

Gonçalo Sá is co-founder of the Creed and Consensys Diligence teams and has 20+ years of experience in offensive security. Notable achievements range from cracking DRM algorithms to breaching a hospital and a major international consumer electronics retailer. Gonçalo is also a Technical Partner at Ethereal Ventures and has been close to the Eigen team from the start, keeping in contact with the development of the codebase from very early on. Gonçalo is also the Security Council lead at Everclear.

These members will be the initial cohort of the Protocol Council, stewarding the protocol and reviewing EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) until the Council is progressively decentralized and expanded to more independently operate at the direction, and in the hands, of the community. More details on the Protocol Council’s structure and operation can be found in its charter.

The Protocol Council multisig is deployed at 0x461854d84Ee845F905e0eCf6C288DDEEb4A9533F.

Introducing ELIPs

EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) are the primary mechanisms for proposing new features and upgrades to the EigenLayer core contracts (See Exhibit A to the Protocol Council Charter). ELIPs are version-controlled design documents that detail the motivation, technical specification, rationale, implementation path, and impact evaluation of specific proposals impacting core contracts. ELIPs are used to:

  • Track progress while designing, building, and implementing new features
  • Publicly communicate new features, designs, and create space for community input
  • Propose new upgrades for approval & execution

All proposals are developed, discussed, and reviewed in adherence to the current ELIP process and stored in the EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) repository. In the early stages, ideas for ELIPs and early drafts should be discussed under the ELIPs category on forum.eigenlayer.xyz. The following actions require an ELIP:

  • Upgrades/modifications to EigenLayer core contracts
  • Modifications to multisig governance architecture (i.e. transferring ownership / admin access)
  • Modifying minting rights over the bEIGEN token

Once proposals have passed through the ELIP process, they are submitted to the Protocol Council for final approval and execution. The Protocol Council will approve and execute all EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs).

The first ELIP to pass through this process will be the Eigen Lab’s Rewards v2 proposal. This proposal addresses gaps in the current implementation of EigenLayer rewards by giving AVSs more tools for more flexible, operator-directed rewards with on-chain attribution, in addition to a few quality of life improvements. 

Progressive Decentralization

As the first EigenGov council incubated within the Eigen Foundation, the formation of the Protocol Council represents a pivotal step towards responsibly decentralizing the EigenLayer protocol. Its structure, composition, and processes are designed to be adaptable, allowing councils to evolve in response to the growing needs of the ecosystem. As the Eigen Foundation carefully guides the protocol’s transition over to the community via EigenGov, the Protocol Council will serve as a key governance body, ensuring that the community’s voice is consistently represented and future changes align with the values and goals of EigenLayer’s mission.

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