EigenLayer: An Innovative Protocol Reshaping the Ethereum Ecosystem

EigenLayer is an innovative technology protocol built on the Ethereum network that introduces the concept of re-staking. As of June 5, 2024, the protocol has attracted over 5.309 million ETH for re-staking.

This protocol allows ETH holders and holders of related liquidity assets (LST) to re-stake their assets, thereby earning additional revenue. At the same time, it provides developers with a convenient platform to utilize the existing validator set and staking assets of Ethereum to launch new active validation services (AVS). This greatly lowers the barriers to building new protocols on Ethereum, enabling developers to avoid building security infrastructure and PoS networks from scratch.

The founder of EigenLayer once likened it to "the verifiable cloud of the crypto space." This description highlights the significant importance of this protocol in pioneering "cloud security verification" within the Web3 ecosystem, with its core being the proactive verification service (AVS) mentioned earlier.

Active Verification Service ( AVS ) Analysis

Active Verification Service ( AVS ) refers to a system that requires self-owned distributed verification semantics for validation, including sidechains, data availability layers, virtual machines, Web3 Keeper networks, bridges, threshold encryption schemes, and trusted execution environments. Each AVS has a corresponding set of smart contracts.

Active Validation Service Projects in the EigenLayer Ecosystem

On April 9, 2024, EigenLayer launched the operator and AVS modules on the mainnet. As of June 5, 2024, the official website listed 13 launched AVS projects and 8 new AVS projects based on Rollup. Here are brief introductions to some of the projects:

1. EigenDA: The first AVS project on EigenLayer, developed by EigenLabs, is set to launch on the mainnet in the second quarter of 2024.

2. Aethos: A decentralized strategy engine that can be used for trading rule customization, utilizing off-chain computation and achieving cryptoeconomic consensus through EigenLayer.

3. AltLayer: A decentralized Rollup protocol that utilizes EigenDA to achieve data availability.

4. Blockless: An infrastructure platform for launching, integrating, and protecting network-neutral applications (nnApps ).

5. Drosera Network: A protocol for creating automated monitoring systems for decentralized applications.

6. Espresso: A shared ordering tool that connects Layer2, aimed at enhancing the interoperability of Rollups while maintaining security consistent with Ethereum.

7. Ethos: A secure coordination layer that supports Cosmos by leveraging the economic security of staked Ether.

8. Hyperlane: The first permissionless and shared use interoperability layer designed to serve modular blockchain stack construction.

9. Lagrange: A decentralized proof network, the first to launch ZK Coprocessor and State Committees based on zero-knowledge proofs.

10. Near: Built-in account abstraction and other features, with interoperability with other chains, can use chain signatures to control accounts on other chains.

11. Omni: An interoperability protocol based on Ether, used to establish low-latency communication between Rollups on Ethereum.

12. Silence Laboratories: Build a verification library and software toolkit based on multi-party secure computation (MPC-TSS) and (SDK).

13. Witness Chain: Converts the unverified physical attributes of the DePIN network into measurable, verifiable digital proofs that can be used by different applications or the DePIN chain for validation, to build new products and services.

Restaked Rollup: EigenLayer's New Active Validation Service

Restaked Rollup is a new category of active validation service by EigenLayer that merges multiple services into a single Rollup service. Users can not only earn restaking rewards from such projects but also utilize multiple service functions simultaneously. Here are some of the Restaked Rollup projects:

1. Caldera: A Rollup deployment platform that uses EigenDA as the data storage layer, supporting quick deployment of high-performance Rollups tailored for specific applications across multiple frameworks.

2. Celo: Using EigenDA as a data storage layer, providing a technical framework and modular functions to assist in the development of decentralized applications.

3. Cyber: A modular Layer2 network using EigenDA as a data storage layer, focusing on becoming the social layer for web3 applications, supporting the reading, writing, and composition of embedded social graph protocols.

4. LayerN: Using EigenDA as the data storage layer of the Layer2 network, aiming to create a high-performance, freely usable virtual machine execution environment to achieve a higher level of on-chain computation.

5. Mantle: A modular blockchain network developed by BitDAO, using EigenDA as its data storage layer, aimed at building a scalable solution compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine execution environment.

6. Movement: It has modular blockchain networks M1 and M2 that use EigenDA as a data storage layer and the Move programming language.

7. Polymer Labs: The developed protocol combines the settlement capabilities of the Optimism stack with the interoperability features of the Cosmos SDK, and uses EigenDA as the data storage layer.

8. Versatus: The world's first Stateless Rollup, dedicated to assisting the development of decentralized applications.

EigenLayer is bringing new possibilities and development opportunities to the Ethereum network through its innovative re-staking mechanism and a rich ecosystem of active validation services. With more projects joining and continuous technological evolution, we have reason to expect EigenLayer to make more groundbreaking contributions to the Web3 ecosystem in the future.