EigenLayer /EIGEN

What is EigenLayer (EIGEN)?

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol designed to increase Ethereum's security and scalability. Established by Sreeram Kannan, a former tenured associate professor from the University of Washington, it was launched on the Ethereum mainnet in June 2023. With this protocol, a new restaking mechanism allows Ethereum validators to provide their staked ETH to secure applications developed on other blockchains besides Ethereum.

EigenLayer operates on a marketplace for pooled security, allowing blockchain projects to reuse a large existing validator network of Ethereum rather than establishing a separate one. Validators under EigenLayer are allowed to join and provide security for Actively Validated Services (AVSs), consisting of middleware, data availability solutions, and others. 

Restaking in EigenLayer allows validators to extend their Ethereum security contributions to multiple applications without compromising their original ETH stake. This innovation helps create a more interconnected and robust blockchain ecosystem, reducing barriers to entry for new decentralized projects while maintaining strong security guarantees.

Key Features of EigenLayer

1. Enhanced Security: EigenLayer strives to bolster security on the blockchain by allowing projects to tap into Ethereum's validator set rather than operate independent validator networks.

2. Capital efficiency: A validator maximizes the rewards from restaked ETH, cumulatively raising the total staking yield without additional capital.

3. Scalability and innovation: Through one shared security model, EigenLayer enhances innovation in decentralized applications, thus, new projects could simply build upon an established security infrastructure

4. Slashing Mechanism: To assure accountability, EigenLayer also incorporates slashing rules whereby the validator can lose one's stake on account of knowingly engaging in malicious activities.

What Is the EIGEN Token?

EIGEN is the Indigenous utility token under the EigenLayer ecosystem that thereby acts as the utility in the maintenance of integrity in the network and performance of many functions: 

• 1. Security Staking for Intersubjective Faults: Validators stake EIGEN tokens to ensure that services requiring consensus on subjective issues are executed appropriately.

• 2. Validation of AVSs: EIGEN tokens are also provided for the security and safety of AVSs over this EigenLayer network.

• 3. Incentivization and Penalty System: The mechanism of EIGEN tokens updates the reward and penalty to bring honest participation and penalty to the validator in case of dishonest practices using slashing mechanisms.