This guide provides a high-level technical explanation of how does EigenLayer work, focusing on its core concepts of EigenLayer restaking and EigenLayer pooled security.
Step 1: The Problem of Fragmented Security
New protocols that need their own trust network (e.g., bridges, oracles, sequencers), called EigenLayer AVS, must bootstrap their own validator set and economic security. This is incredibly expensive and fragments the overall security of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Step 2: Restaking - Reusing Economic Trust
EigenLayer allows ETH that is already staked (either natively or via EigenLayer liquid restaking tokens) to be "restaked." This means the same staked ETH can be used to provide crypto-economic security to these other protocols.
How it works: A staker opts into EigenLayer smart contracts, agreeing to grant EigenLayer additional slashing conditions. In exchange for taking on this additional risk, they earn additional EigenLayer rewards from the AVSs they are securing.
Step 3: Operators and AVSs
Operators: These are the entities that run the validator software for the AVSs. They receive delegated stakes from restakers. See the EigenLayer operator guide for more.
AVSs: These are the protocols that consume the pooled security. They pay fees to the restakers and operators to "rent" their economic security.
This creates a marketplace where the massive trust layer of Ethereum can be extended to any other protocol. For a full breakdown, refer to the https://sites.google.com/restaking-node-portal.net/eigenlayer/.
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