Today, the Eigen Foundation announced 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 established councils as a core component of our governance system—bringing together trusted, high-context domain experts to guide EigenLayer’s evolution.
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.
Structure
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:
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Sigma Prime, represented by Mehdi Zerouali
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.
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Unit410, represented by Mike Reinhart
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.
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Gonçalo Sa, Creed and Consensys Diligence
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.
Under this first charter, the Board of the Eigen Foundation or the Council, by majority vote, may remove or replace any member of the Protocol Council at any time, with immediate effect. Appointments to the Council shall confer a six (6) month term ending on June 1st and December 1st unless extended or otherwise provided by the Board. All Council members are required to enter into a participation agreement with the Foundation outlining their roles and responsibilities as members of the Council.
The Protocol Council multisig is deployed at 0x461854d84Ee845F905e0eCf6C288DDEEb4A9533F.
Introducing ELIPs
The Protocol Council approves and executes EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (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 “ELIP” 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.
Implementation
The Protocol Council will be deployed alongside a new timelock that will replace the current multisig governance architecture. In the initial iteration, the Operations Multisig (controlled by Eigen Labs) and the Protocol Council will be the only parties that can queue operations to the timelock.
The ELIP process is being introduced to provide the EigenLayer ecosystem with more transparency and clarity on upcoming changes. For now, involvement from the Eigen Foundation and/or Eigen Labs is required to submit ELIPs, but the goal is to further open the process to external authors in the near future. The Protocol Council will be the sole party that can execute/approve proposed ELIPs.
The Protocol Council will be formally added to the current governance system by the end of the month. The community will be informed once it is deployed.
Future State
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 them 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.
To ensure transparency, the Protocol Council will proactively report on its operations and disclose changes to its structure and processes in the Protocol Council category on forum.eigenlayer.xyz.
