Technical Architecture

On a technical level, the current governance architecture is composed of four governance multisigs:

Name of Multisig	Address	Quorum	Owner(s)
Protocol Council	0x461854d84Ee845F905e0eCf6C288DDEEb4A9533F	3-of-5	See Protocol Council Charter
Operations (Ops)	0xBE1685C81aA44FF9FB319dD389addd9374383e90	3-of-6	Eigen Labs
Community	0xFEA47018D632A77bA579846c840d5706705Dc598	9-of-13	Members from the Ethereum community (See Community Multisig)
Pauser	0x5050389572f2d220ad927CcbeA0D406831012390	1-of-8	Eigen Labs & Eigen Foundation

The Protocol Council executes upgrades queued by proposers through the primary timelock (0xC06Fd4F821eaC1fF1ae8067b36342899b57BAa2d) that enforces a minimum 10-day delay on all safety-critical functions. It can also execute upgrades queued by proposers through the bEIGEN timelock (0x738130bc8eade1bc65a9c056dea636835896bc53), which is solely used for bEIGEN upgrades (see chart above). Currently, the Operations (Ops) and the Protocol Council multisigs are the only two parties with the power to propose upgrades.

These multisigs represent the first iteration of the EigenLayer’s protocol governance system, with appropriate checks and balances built into the Protocol Council, the first council deployed in EigenGov. See the technical diagram below for more details.

Protocol Council

The Protocol Council is a multi-stakeholder group tasked with overseeing EigenLayer’s protocol governance. 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 council adheres to EigenLayer’s current protocol governance process, as defined in the ELIP process section.

The Protocol Council operates a Gnosis Safe with a 3-of-5 threshold configuration that executes routine upgrades and maintenance through a timelock that enforces a minimum 10-day delay on any queued transactions. Of these five initial members, two represent the Eigen Foundation, alongside three independent (external) members sourced from across the EigenLayer ecosystem. The initial cohort of external members is:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 act as 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. The official Protocol Council charter can be found here.

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 can also pause EigenLayer functionality in emergency situations.

Community Multisig

The Community Multisig is a 9-of-13 multisig composed of members of the Ethereum community. In normal circumstances, the signers of the Community Multisig act as observers, receiving regular updates on the Protocol Council’s transactions, including notifications of actions queued in the new time-locked actions. In extraordinary circumstances, the Community Multisig can perform emergency actions, including immediately executing time-critical upgrades or replacing the timelock in the event of private key compromise.

The Community Multisig members include:

• Tim Beiko - Ethereum Foundation
• Viktor Bunin - Coinbase
• Uma Roy - Succinct
• Brian Retford - RISC Zero
• Pramod Viswanath - Witness Chain
• Swapnil Raj - Nethermind
• Dimitry Ukhanov - P2P
• Tarun Chitra - Robot Ventures
• Anna Rose - ZK Validator
• Curtis Spencer - Electric Capital
• Yuan Han Li - Blockchain Capital
• Ben Rodriguez - Coinbase Cloud
• Rob Pellecchia - Figment Capital

Operations Multisig

The Operations Multisig is a 3-of-6 multisig operated by Eigen Labs that can propose routine upgrades and maintenance through the timelock. It can also pause EigenLayer functionality in emergency situations.

Pauser Multisig

The Pauser Multisig is a 1-of-8 multisig that can also pause EigenLayer functionality in emergency situations, but it holds no other powers.