EigenLayer

What is EigenLayer

EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. This primitive enables the reuse of ETH on the consensus layer. Users that stake ETH natively or with a liquid staking token (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards.

With EigenLayer, Ethereum stakers can help secure many services by restaking their staked ETH and opting-in to many services simultaneously, providing pooled security. Reusing ETH to provide security across many services reduces capital costs for a staker to participate and significantly increases the trust guarantees to individual services.

• EigenLayer creates a free market for decentralized trust, delivered from Ethereum stakers to modules that desire stake and validation services.
• By restaking via EigenLayer, Ethereum stakers can opt into providing security and validation services to modules of their choice, either by operating nodes directly, or via delegation to other EigenLayer operators.
• A variety of lightweight and hyperscale modules can be built on EigenLayer, which can be designed for widespread participation from solo stakers.
• Modules may also take advantage of significant heterogeneity between stakers, which may differ on axes of computational capacity, risk/reward preferences, and identity.
• EigenLayer seeks to enable more agile, decentralized, and permissionless innovation on blockchains.