white paperwhite paper。

Eigenlayer is a re-staking (Re-staking) protocol built on Ethereum. Ethereum nodes can use EigenLayer to re-pledge the pledged ETH to obtain additional income, and at the same time, they can also transfer the utility of the Ethereum consensus layer to all parties. Protocols such as class middleware, data availability layer, and side chains allow them to enjoy Ethereum-level security at a lower cost.

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1. Fragmented trusted network

Currently, thousands of decentralized applications (DApps) are built on top of Ethereum, and the entire ecosystem is constantly growing. A credible decentralized underlying network value foundation stems from: developers do not need any reputation or trust, and the DApp they develop can be adopted by anyone who trusts and verifies the underlying blockchain. Rollup is an important direction of Ethereum performance expansion: do not use EVM to execute transactions, and finally return to Ethereum for settlement. Although different Layer 2 adopts different security verification methods, people trust Layer 2 based on Ethereum.

However, any module that is not deployed or proven on top of the EVM cannot take advantage of the security of Ethereum's trusted underlying layer, such as sidechains based on new consensus protocols, data availability layers (DA), new virtual machines, oracles, and trustworthy Generally speaking, they need to build their own independent AVS (Active Verification System) to be responsible for their own system security. The current AVS ecology has some shortcomings:

• Building a new AVS means building a new trusted network, which is not an easy task;

• The new AVS means that users need to pay an additional AVS fee while supporting the Ethereum interaction fee, which will lead to value loss;

• For verifiers, entering a new verification system means bearing a certain opportunity cost and risk exposure;

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AVS on EigenLayer can rent the security services of Ethereum validators, which has the following benefits:

1. A new AVS could enhance economic security with Ethereum's validators

2. The cost of using Ethereum's security enhancements is generally the lowest

3. Security model at EigenLayer increases cost of breach ($13 billion)

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2.1 Support multiple pledge modes

EigenLayer provides a variety of staking methods similar to Lido's Liquid Staking and Superfluid Staking, in which Superfluid Staking can allow LP pairs to pledge, specifically:

• direct pledge, pledge the ETH pledged on Ethereum directly to EigenLayer

• LSD pledge, the assets already pledged in Lido or Rocket Pool are pledged to EigenLayer again

• ETH LP pledge, pledge the LP Token pledged in the DeFi protocol to EigenLayer again

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2.2 Client

For those re-stakers who are interested in EigenLayer but do not want to be node operators (operators), they can entrust their rights to other node operators, and these node operators will then pledge their tokens to Ethereum and will receive benefits A portion of the stake is allocated to these re-pledgers. EigenLayer provides two modes:

• Single pledge mode: Pledgers provide verification services, can directly join AVS, or delegate operations to other operators while continuing to verify for Ethereum

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3.1 Design of slashing mechanism

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3.2 Do not use homogeneous warrants

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3.3 Similarities and differences with merged mining

The concept of EigenLayer restaking is similar to the merged mining concept of Bitcoin/Namecoin, Bitcoin/Elastos, Bitcoin/RSK and Litecoin/Dogecoin. Merged mining can save a lot of cost, because the mining machine can mine different PoW blockchains at the same time under the same encryption mechanism. For the PoS blockchain, the biggest cost for the verifier is the pledge cost, and re-pledging allows the pledged funds to be utilized on different execution layers.

However, the similarities between merged mining and restaking end there. Assuming that some of the main public chain verifiers for both PoS and PoW are validators of multiple chains at the same time (that is, PoW has merged mining, and PoS has re-pledge), when they attack smaller public chains (such as : Deliberately sign the wrong state root and cause problems with cross-chain assets), then there will be two situations:

• In the PoS chain merged by re-pledging, the following measures can be taken: fraudulent proofs can be issued for incorrect state transition roots on the main chain, and the pledged funds of malicious validators will be fined.

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3.4 Risk Management

There are two types of risks in EigenLayer:

• Many operators may collude to attack a group of AVS at the same time;

• AVS may have unexpected slashing vulnerabilities, such as honest nodes may be slashed.

3.4.1 Operator Collusion

In reality, only a subset of operators opt-in to a given AVS, some of these operators may collude to steal funds from a group of AVS, and sophisticated attacks can then emerge.

• One solution is to limit the damage gain of any particular AVS.The solution is up to those AVS designers. For example,

1. The bridge can limit the flow of value during the slashing period,

2. The oracle can limit the total value of transactions in that period, etc.

• Another solution is that EigenLayer can actively increase the destruction cost of AVS.EigenLayer creates an open-source dashboard where AVSs built on top of EigenLayer can monitor whether a set of operators participating in its verification tasks are also re-staking in many other AVSs. AVS can make specifications in its contracts that only incentivize EigenLayer operators participating in a small number of AVS.

3.4.2 Accidental forfeiture

Before AVS and its related infrastructure and contracts are tested in the real world, many slashing risks need to be controlled to avoid greater overlapping risks. One risk is an accidental slashing vulnerability (e.g., a code bug) at the time of AVS creation that, if triggered, would result in honest operators losing funds.

We propose two solutions here:

• security audit: The AVS codebase must be audited like a smart contract.

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We noticed that when all the ETH re-hypothecated using EigenLayer is used to secure an AVS, the AVS can achieve maximum security. However, there are two obstacles to this:

• Whether the expected income of AVS to the operator can be higher than the operating cost;

• Whether the operator has enough computing resources to participate in the verification of AVS.

EigenLayer proposes two possible module design patterns to alleviate these concerns:

• Hyperscale AVS (Hyperscale AVS): In Hyperscale AVS, the total computational workload is distributed among all N participating operators. In this way, storage costs and node throughput requirements will be reduced, and the system itself can achieve high throughput by aggregating the performance of multiple nodes.

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4.1 Realize new application scenarios

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4.2 Using the heterogeneity of stakers to greatly expand the block space

Ethereum nodes are heterogeneous in terms of computing power, risk-return preference, and characteristics:

• In order to decentralize the blockchain, block limits will be set according to the performance of the weakest node. Nodes with stronger performance can provide excess resources to other protocols through EigenLayer

• Nodes with higher risk appetite can choose protocols with greater risk, lower income liquidity but higher yield to provide verification

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4.3 Striking the balance between democracy and flexibility

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4.4 Promoting the decentralization of Ethereum stakers

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4.5 Node groups supporting multiple tokens

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4.6 Business Model

The business models that the protocol can use EigenLayer include:

• Pure wallet mode: the protocol deploys an AVS on EigenLayer to provide services, users pay fees to obtain services, part of the income is paid to the wallet of the protocol, and the other part is paid to ETH re-pledgers in EigenLayer.

• Tokenization fees: The protocol deploys an AVS on EigenLayer as a protocol, users pay fees to obtain services, part of the income is paid to protocol token holders, and the other part is paid to ETH re-pledgers in EigenLayer.

• Use protocol native tokens to pay: the protocol deploys an AVS on EigenLayer as a protocol, users need to pay protocol tokens to obtain services, part of the income is paid to protocol token holders, and the other part is paid to ETH re-pledgers in EigenLayer.

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5. More about EigenLayer

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Along with the release of the white paper, EigenLayer also plans to organize aCommunity space, you can also ask questions and learn more about EigenLayer in Space.