Bitcoin was cool, Ethereum was smart but EigenLayer is easy and inclusive.

When we first met Bitcoin, it was all about ‘freedom’, ‘security’ and ‘decentralization’. But by the time, it became a digital gold for some people, even though it still carries all the value propositions, we needed something more. Bitcoin passed the torch to Ethereum with all those dApps, NFTs and DeFi keywords, all thanks to Smart Contract feature. You could write a contract and build an decentralized app on Ethereum which brought us to 2024 with a great success. But still, there are some missing points, there are opportunities and humanity does not saturate easily.

We needed more innovation to make decentralization a mainstream thing. We need easier building processes, easier onboarding processes and better user experience on blockchain apps. Today, if you want to build a blockchain app from scratch, that could help humanity to improve, that could help people’s lives, you need a great amount of money and energy to build your blockchain with all the necessary things such as tokenomics, consensus protocol, node operators etc. It’s like when you wanted to build a website back then in the early 2000s.

But today, thanks to Amazon AWS, it’s all 2 clicks. That’s what EigenLayer aims to do. Handling most of the infrastructure necessities so that innovators can build their next best apps easier, quicker and secure.

“Pre-AWS, setting up an internet company was extremely costly and inefficient. Teams had to build all the required infrastructure themselves. 70% of their engineering hours went into building and maintaining data centers. Only 30% on the actual product. This was a process every startup had to repeat, irrespective of their core product. AWS, of course, changed all of that.” — @Decentralisedco

“Here is a non-exhaustive list of things you needed to start an internet company in the 1990s and early 2000s: physical servers, networking equipment, data storage, software licences for databases and operating systems, a secure facility to house hardware, a team of system administrators and network engineers, and robust disaster recovery and backup solutions. All of this cost at least $250,000 and took several months to a year to set up.” — I don’t remember from where I quoted this

Eigenlayer defines itself as a 4-sided marketplace: AVS developers, stakers, operators and consumers. “Anyone building a new decentralized service for Ethereum must bootstrap a new trust network to secure their system, fragmenting security. EigenLayer solves this problem by enabling any service, regardless of its composition (e.g. EVM-compatibility), to tap into the pooled security of Ethereum’s stakers, creating an environment for permissionless innovation and free-market governance.” said by EigenLayer official website.

AVS Developers: Actively Validated Services (AVS) are the main value of EigenLayer, heartbeat of the ecosystem. They can create any project on Eigenlayer, without worrying about infrastructure. Their project (Either an automation service like Ditto Network or decentralized rollup service like Altlayer) can go live on Eigenlayer, leveraging the Shared Security which means these newly founded projects can have the security of Ethereum right away.

Stakers: Stakers can restake their Native ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) to provide greater security for services in the EigenLayer ecosystem. This also boosts Actively Validated Services (AVSs) on the ecosystem.

Operators: Operators are entities that help run AVS software built on EigenLayer. They register in EigenLayer and allow stakers to delegate to them, then opt in to provide various services (AVSs) built on top of EigenLayer.

Normally, for a new project, it’s hard to find operators/validators who are willing to run a node for the project, due to opportunity cost and the liquidity of the project’s token. But Thanks to EigenLayer’s design, operators could run their nodes and be an operator for different AVSs at the same time, with ETH or any other token at their decision.

Consumers: Any user that uses projects that are built on EigenLayer is the consumer. These consumers are able to access decentralized and secure services/apps on blockchain thanks to EigenLayer.

To sum up: Eigenlayer helps builders to develop their dream projects easily while letting stakers to re-stake their tokens and get double yields while providing a secure online life for users. Simply win-win-win.

Ethereum is a singular Proof of Stake (PoS) system: singular type of stake, operator and network. EigenLayer, through restaking, massively expands what’s to come of PoS, and becomes the endgame for decentralized coordination. PoS is no longer for just PoS chains but for many more PoS services (ie Actively Validated Services). EigenLayer = Universal Infra for all PoS.

Let’s take Ditto Network as an example. Since I write content for them, I’m a little more familiar with the process than any other project on EigenLayer ecosystem.

What Ditto Network does simply is that they automate on-chain activities of any web3 project. But they do it in a way that no other automation service could do.

We’ll come to that part but first let’s say you have a GameFi project and would like automate in-game asset management, reward distributions etc. You want your users/gamers to collect small rewards and every time they play and write these reward on the blockchain. But due to human nature (signing the transaction every time is an extra step) and gas-fee facts, the players won’t be doing this. This will affect your on-chain activity and, therefore your direct income. By automating this reward distribution, you can make your user sign only once in the beginning and then you can automatically print every reward onchain.

This step was Ditto’s main job. But where EigenLayer comes in is that the trust part. How do you know the transactions will execute at the correct time or not going to fail at all? Thanks to EigenLayer’s shared security, Ditto Network can economically guarantee your execution. if, a snowball’s chance in hell, the transaction fails, the failing operator will be slashed and your damage will be compensated automatically.

Ditto Network is also a keeper (operator) network and they do various things, providing different values but not going to dive deep on those right now. The focus is EigenLayer today.

Eigenlayer wants to build a more scalable Ethereum without abandoning Ethereum. They want an online world that individuals enforce themselves correctly while getting the cryptoeconomic guarantee from EigenLayer. If anything goes wrong, the harmed party can trigger the slashing and get compensated. But for that to work correctly, the Data Availability layer needs to work fine. That’s why the EigenLayer team also developed the EigenDA.

• Portion of stake assigned unique slashing rights

• AVS wants to pay for unique security

• No veto committee or permission AVS

The $EIGEN token is a universal work token that will be used in the EigenLayer ecosystem which let’s open innovation for everyone. It’s used for staking and slashing.

Many tasks are not chain observable but human observable (the result of a football game, or election etc.) but robust slashing is only available for chain observable tasks. That’s why EigenLayer introduced the token forking (slashing-by-token-forking).

“EigenLayer addresses this through a token forking mechanism, isolating the resolution of intersubjective faults from Ethereum’s core network. With this mechanism only staking activities and their associated disputes affect EigenLayer, while Ethereum remains focused on its core objective consensus tasks. Applications using EIGEN for non-staking purposes are also isolated from the complexities of token forking because there is a separate token for such activities. These apps can be used without needing to be aware of any underlying forks.” -edatweets

bEIGEN, is the second token of the system is only for securing various services withing the EigenLayer and for staking, it’s subject to slashing and forkable. But the other token EIGEN is used in DeFi and it’s not aware of the forking at all.

“EIGEN staking and ETH restaking play complementary roles within EigenLayer. In many mature AVS protocols, safety properties are secured through objective slashing, while liveness and censorship-resistance, which previously relied on majority-assumptions and stake decentralization, are achieved through EIGEN staking. For a service that uses restaking for safety and EIGEN staking for liveness, fees can be split between the two quorums. Furthermore, for core services provided to the Ethereum ecosystem, we envision many services that will use dual staking between ETH and EIGEN. The ETH restaking absorbs the decentralization/collusion resistance and operator alignment that comes with it, and the EIGEN staking can support cryptoeconomic slashing.” — EigenLayer

To sum up: Through EigenLayer, builders can develop groundbreaking services across multiple sectors:

• New Chains: Innovators can create customized blockchain networks, leveraging Ethereum’s security while adding unique features and modules.

• Intents and MEV Mitigation: EigenLayer enables the secure management of transaction ordering, minimizing risks related to Miner Extractable Value (MEV) attacks.

• AI Solutions: Developers can use EigenLayer to validate, benchmark, and secure the execution of AI models, ensuring trustworthy AI outputs.

• Prediction Markets: Builders can launch decentralized and secure prediction markets, leveraging EigenLayer’s economic guarantees for reliable outcomes.

• Decentralized Storage: Secure, decentralized storage services can be built on EigenLayer’s robust infrastructure, making data management more trustless.

• Cloud Microservices: Traditional cloud services can migrate to the blockchain, secured with cryptoeconomic incentives and slashing mechanisms, making services like Kafka tamper-proof.

• Gaming Virtual Machines: EigenLayer also supports blockchain-based gaming environments, ensuring secure execution of gaming virtual machines.

• Databases: Complex database services can use EigenLayer’s staking model to improve security, with advanced dispute resolution powered by cryptoeconomic slashing.

Further reading: EigenLayer Video, edatweets

Bitcoin was cool, Ethereum was smart but EigenLayer is easy and inclusive.

When we first met Bitcoin, it was all about ‘freedom’, ‘security’ and ‘decentralization’. But by the time, it became a digital gold for some people, even though it still carries all the value propositions, we needed something more. Bitcoin passed the torch to Ethereum with all those dApps, NFTs and DeFi keywords, all thanks to Smart Contract feature. You could write a contract and build an decentralized app on Ethereum which brought us to 2024 with a great success. But still, there are some missing points, there are opportunities and humanity does not saturate easily.

We needed more innovation to make decentralization a mainstream thing. We need easier building processes, easier onboarding processes and better user experience on blockchain apps. Today, if you want to build a blockchain app from scratch, that could help humanity to improve, that could help people’s lives, you need a great amount of money and energy to build your blockchain with all the necessary things such as tokenomics, consensus protocol, node operators etc. It’s like when you wanted to build a website back then in the early 2000s.

But today, thanks to Amazon AWS, it’s all 2 clicks. That’s what EigenLayer aims to do. Handling most of the infrastructure necessities so that innovators can build their next best apps easier, quicker and secure.

“Pre-AWS, setting up an internet company was extremely costly and inefficient. Teams had to build all the required infrastructure themselves. 70% of their engineering hours went into building and maintaining data centers. Only 30% on the actual product. This was a process every startup had to repeat, irrespective of their core product. AWS, of course, changed all of that.” — @Decentralisedco

“Here is a non-exhaustive list of things you needed to start an internet company in the 1990s and early 2000s: physical servers, networking equipment, data storage, software licences for databases and operating systems, a secure facility to house hardware, a team of system administrators and network engineers, and robust disaster recovery and backup solutions. All of this cost at least $250,000 and took several months to a year to set up.” — I don’t remember from where I quoted this

Eigenlayer defines itself as a 4-sided marketplace: AVS developers, stakers, operators and consumers. “Anyone building a new decentralized service for Ethereum must bootstrap a new trust network to secure their system, fragmenting security. EigenLayer solves this problem by enabling any service, regardless of its composition (e.g. EVM-compatibility), to tap into the pooled security of Ethereum’s stakers, creating an environment for permissionless innovation and free-market governance.” said by EigenLayer official website.

AVS Developers: Actively Validated Services (AVS) are the main value of EigenLayer, heartbeat of the ecosystem. They can create any project on Eigenlayer, without worrying about infrastructure. Their project (Either an automation service like Ditto Network or decentralized rollup service like Altlayer) can go live on Eigenlayer, leveraging the Shared Security which means these newly founded projects can have the security of Ethereum right away.

Stakers: Stakers can restake their Native ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) to provide greater security for services in the EigenLayer ecosystem. This also boosts Actively Validated Services (AVSs) on the ecosystem.

Operators: Operators are entities that help run AVS software built on EigenLayer. They register in EigenLayer and allow stakers to delegate to them, then opt in to provide various services (AVSs) built on top of EigenLayer.

Normally, for a new project, it’s hard to find operators/validators who are willing to run a node for the project, due to opportunity cost and the liquidity of the project’s token. But Thanks to EigenLayer’s design, operators could run their nodes and be an operator for different AVSs at the same time, with ETH or any other token at their decision.

Consumers: Any user that uses projects that are built on EigenLayer is the consumer. These consumers are able to access decentralized and secure services/apps on blockchain thanks to EigenLayer.

To sum up: Eigenlayer helps builders to develop their dream projects easily while letting stakers to re-stake their tokens and get double yields while providing a secure online life for users. Simply win-win-win.

Ethereum is a singular Proof of Stake (PoS) system: singular type of stake, operator and network. EigenLayer, through restaking, massively expands what’s to come of PoS, and becomes the endgame for decentralized coordination. PoS is no longer for just PoS chains but for many more PoS services (ie Actively Validated Services). EigenLayer = Universal Infra for all PoS.

Let’s take Ditto Network as an example. Since I write content for them, I’m a little more familiar with the process than any other project on EigenLayer ecosystem.

What Ditto Network does simply is that they automate on-chain activities of any web3 project. But they do it in a way that no other automation service could do.

We’ll come to that part but first let’s say you have a GameFi project and would like automate in-game asset management, reward distributions etc. You want your users/gamers to collect small rewards and every time they play and write these reward on the blockchain. But due to human nature (signing the transaction every time is an extra step) and gas-fee facts, the players won’t be doing this. This will affect your on-chain activity and, therefore your direct income. By automating this reward distribution, you can make your user sign only once in the beginning and then you can automatically print every reward onchain.

This step was Ditto’s main job. But where EigenLayer comes in is that the trust part. How do you know the transactions will execute at the correct time or not going to fail at all? Thanks to EigenLayer’s shared security, Ditto Network can economically guarantee your execution. if, a snowball’s chance in hell, the transaction fails, the failing operator will be slashed and your damage will be compensated automatically.

Ditto Network is also a keeper (operator) network and they do various things, providing different values but not going to dive deep on those right now. The focus is EigenLayer today.

Eigenlayer wants to build a more scalable Ethereum without abandoning Ethereum. They want an online world that individuals enforce themselves correctly while getting the cryptoeconomic guarantee from EigenLayer. If anything goes wrong, the harmed party can trigger the slashing and get compensated. But for that to work correctly, the Data Availability layer needs to work fine. That’s why the EigenLayer team also developed the EigenDA.

• Portion of stake assigned unique slashing rights

• AVS wants to pay for unique security

• No veto committee or permission AVS

The $EIGEN token is a universal work token that will be used in the EigenLayer ecosystem which let’s open innovation for everyone. It’s used for staking and slashing.

Many tasks are not chain observable but human observable (the result of a football game, or election etc.) but robust slashing is only available for chain observable tasks. That’s why EigenLayer introduced the token forking (slashing-by-token-forking).

“EigenLayer addresses this through a token forking mechanism, isolating the resolution of intersubjective faults from Ethereum’s core network. With this mechanism only staking activities and their associated disputes affect EigenLayer, while Ethereum remains focused on its core objective consensus tasks. Applications using EIGEN for non-staking purposes are also isolated from the complexities of token forking because there is a separate token for such activities. These apps can be used without needing to be aware of any underlying forks.” -edatweets

bEIGEN, is the second token of the system is only for securing various services withing the EigenLayer and for staking, it’s subject to slashing and forkable. But the other token EIGEN is used in DeFi and it’s not aware of the forking at all.

“EIGEN staking and ETH restaking play complementary roles within EigenLayer. In many mature AVS protocols, safety properties are secured through objective slashing, while liveness and censorship-resistance, which previously relied on majority-assumptions and stake decentralization, are achieved through EIGEN staking. For a service that uses restaking for safety and EIGEN staking for liveness, fees can be split between the two quorums. Furthermore, for core services provided to the Ethereum ecosystem, we envision many services that will use dual staking between ETH and EIGEN. The ETH restaking absorbs the decentralization/collusion resistance and operator alignment that comes with it, and the EIGEN staking can support cryptoeconomic slashing.” — EigenLayer

To sum up: Through EigenLayer, builders can develop groundbreaking services across multiple sectors:

• New Chains: Innovators can create customized blockchain networks, leveraging Ethereum’s security while adding unique features and modules.

• Intents and MEV Mitigation: EigenLayer enables the secure management of transaction ordering, minimizing risks related to Miner Extractable Value (MEV) attacks.

• AI Solutions: Developers can use EigenLayer to validate, benchmark, and secure the execution of AI models, ensuring trustworthy AI outputs.

• Prediction Markets: Builders can launch decentralized and secure prediction markets, leveraging EigenLayer’s economic guarantees for reliable outcomes.

• Decentralized Storage: Secure, decentralized storage services can be built on EigenLayer’s robust infrastructure, making data management more trustless.

• Cloud Microservices: Traditional cloud services can migrate to the blockchain, secured with cryptoeconomic incentives and slashing mechanisms, making services like Kafka tamper-proof.

• Gaming Virtual Machines: EigenLayer also supports blockchain-based gaming environments, ensuring secure execution of gaming virtual machines.

• Databases: Complex database services can use EigenLayer’s staking model to improve security, with advanced dispute resolution powered by cryptoeconomic slashing.

Further reading: EigenLayer Video, edatweets