Sreeram Kannan is an academic and entrepreneur known as the founder of Eigen Labs, the company that developed the EigenLayer protocol on Ethereum. He is also an affiliate associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Washington and is credited with developing the concept of "restaking," a mechanism for shared blockchain security. ^{[1] [2]}

Education

Sreeram Kannan completed his postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley from 2012 to 2014. He earned his Ph.D. in Information Theory and Wireless Networks at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign between 2008 and 2012, where he also obtained a Master of Science in Mathematics from 2009 to 2011. Prior to this, he completed a Master of Engineering in Telecommunications at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) from 2006 to 2008, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering at the College of Engineering, Guindy from 2002 to 2006. ^{[1] [2] [4]}

Career

Sreeram Kannan is the Chief Executive Officer of EigenLayer, a role he has held since July 2021. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, where he has conducted research in information sciences with applications in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, wireless networks, and computational biology since 2014. Prior to this, Kannan was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 2012 to 2015, focusing on information-theoretic approaches in computational biology, particularly RNA sequencing assembly. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, conducting research in information theory for wireless networks and distributed computation. Kannan has also held research and internship positions at Microsoft Research, Qualcomm, the University of Southern California, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. ^[4]

Controversies

The launch of EigenLayer and its associated EIGEN token in 2024 was met with several controversies. The token distribution plan, announced in April 2024, caused significant backlash from the community. Many users who had participated in the points program expressed disappointment with the airdrop's terms, which included a multi-month lock-up period preventing immediate trading and geographic restrictions that excluded users in several countries, including the United States, from participating. Kannan acknowledged the negative reaction, stating, "I think the first time the negativity hit was after the token launch... it just blew up in the most negative possible manner." ^[1]

Awards and Honors

Throughout his academic career, Kannan has received several awards and honors for his research and teaching.

• Invited Speaker on blockchain, NAE US-Japan Frontiers-of-Engineering (2021)
• UW ECE Outstanding Teaching Award (2019)
• Amazon Catalyst Fellowship (2018)
• Van Valkenburg Award for outstanding dissertation, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2013)
• Qualcomm Cognitive Radio Prize (2010)
• Qualcomm (CTO) Padovani Award (2010)
• NSF CAREER Award ^[2]

Media Appearances

In March 2025, Kannan appeared on a16z Crypto to discuss EigenLayer, explaining how decentralized trust networks, modular security, and permissionless innovation are influencing the cryptocurrency ecosystem. He detailed the evolution of Ethereum and the role of actively validated services (AVSs) in advancing blockchain scalability and coordination.