EigenLayer explained: restaking, AVSes and the trust it generalizes
Post561 words
Explains EigenLayer as contracts letting stakers opt into extra slashing to secure AVS middleware, reusing the Ethereum validator set. Notes AVSes still must incentivize validators to opt in, as EigenDA must.
Key claims
AVS examples: DA, shared sequencers, bridges, oracles, proving networks
Validators opt in, so security depends on token incentives
EigenLayer: Modularity powered by Restaking 🚀 ✨
One of the biggest narratives in 2024 will evolve around @eigencloud, a general-purpose system for programmable trust powered by restaking.
Basically, EigenLayer is a series of smart contracts on ETH allowing users to re-stake liquid ETH staking derivatives. It is a mechanism to leverage the existing trust network to do stuff it wasn't necessarily meant to do in the first place.
But let’s take a step back first. When interacting with protocols (e.g. a DEX on ETH), users have to not only trust Ethereum and the DEX protocol they use, but also a number of other protocols that the DEX (or potentially the chain) interface with.
More specifically, from a user perspective, this can for example mean:
✦ Trusting oracles for price feed
✦ Trusting bridges for cross-chain transfer
✦ Trusting relayers for MEV Boost
✦ Trusting a DA provider (single provider, committee or DA layer) if user is on a Validium/DAC or Celestium)
So, where does EigenLayer enter the picture?
Well, all the above mentioned cases are examples of users having to trust a middleware service that is not secured by the Ethereum validator set, hence outside ecosystem security & potentially a source of risk. So, what if instead of having the middleware secured independently, there was a way to leverage the existing trust network (the Ethereum validator set) to do that? To use a "mechanism to leverage the existing trust network to do stuff it wasn't necessarily meant to do in the first place".
That’s exactly the idea behind EigenLayer. Its staking mechanism let's stakers expose their staked ETH (e.g. stETH or rETH) to additional slashing conditions in exchange for securing middleware (also referred to as AVS), thereby leveraging the existing Ethereum validator set for security instead of having to bootstrap an entirely new set of validators on the network.
One example of an AVS that is already gaining quite some hype is @eigen_da, a modular, chain-agnostic data availability layer secured by Eigenlayer and its staking mechanism.
Unlike @CelestiaOrg or @Avail, @eigen_da doesn’t have to bootstrap a new validator set. However, Ethereum validators can freely choose to secure an AVS or not. So to actually achieve high security guarantees, an AVS has to convince a lot of Ethereum validators to opt in through corresponding token incentives.
This is also the case with the Eigenlayer-based EigenDA. Staking nodes that opt in to secure the general purpose DA layer or to secure an app-specific Data Availability Committe (DAC) bootstrapped on EigenLayer, are rewarded through the fees that rollups using EigenDA pay to the nodes that provide the crypto-economically secured data availability guarantees (generally in their native token).
As mentioned before, this restaking layer can be used to basically secure any kind of middleware service. These services secured by EigenLayer are also referred to as Actively Validated Services (AVS).
Many modular building blocks can (and will) be built as AVS, including:
✦ DA Layer (EigenDA)
✦ Shared Sequencer
✦ Low Latency Bridges
✦ Fast Finality Layers
✦ Proof Aggregation Layers
✦ Oracle Networks
✦ Proving Networks (Validity Rollups)
✦ Verifier Networks (Optimistic Rollups)
Due to the reduction of complexity that this system provides anyone that leverages EigenLayer to bootstrap their network, we expect EigenLayer and its general-purpose system for programmable trust to play an important role within the modular ecosystem.
Don't fade @eigencloud anon! 🪬✨
What came next · since 17 Mar 2024
Since then
Zero has written 26 more pieces on EigenLayer since this one.