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Symbiotic, a new re-staking protocol, has officially launched and announced a $5.8 million seed funding round led by prominent cryptocurrency investors Paradigm and Cyber.Fund. This represents a strong endorsement of Symbiotic’s vision of creating a permissionless, modular framework that allows networks to customize re-staking. avatar.
Crypto Briefing previously reported that Lido co-founders Konstantin Lomashuk and Vasiliy Shapovalov were secretly funding Symbiotic along with venture capital firm Paradigm. This protocol is a direct competitor to EigenLayer, although there are key differences in terms of security model. In particular, Symbiotic allows the use of a variety of ERC-20 tokens and is not limited to ETH and staked Ether derivatives (e.g. Lido’s stETH).
According to the announcement, Symbiotic aims to solve the challenges faced by decentralized networks in ensuring adequate security and encouraging infrastructure operators to adhere to protocol rules. By introducing a neutral moderation layer, Symbiotic allows networks to leverage the security of existing ecosystems, providing an easy and secure path for decentralization of projects at various stages of development.
One of Symbiotic’s standout features is its highly flexible, modular design that gives the network unparalleled control over its re-staking implementation. Network builders can customize important aspects such as collateral assets, asset ratios, node operator selection mechanisms, rewards, and slashing mechanisms. This adaptability allows participants to opt in or out of a shared security agreement coordinated through Symbiotic, allowing each network to tailor its security settings to its unique needs and goals.
Symbiotic’s architecture prioritizes risk minimization using non-upgradeable core contracts deployed on Ethereum. By eliminating external governance risks and single points of failure, the protocol provides a trustless and robust environment for participants. The minimalist yet flexible contract design further minimizes execution layer risks, instilling confidence in the security of the platform.
Another key advantage of Symbiotic is the capital efficiency achieved through its permissionless, multi-asset, and network-agnostic design. By allowing collateral to be reclaimed from a variety of sources, the protocol can provide a scalable and cost-effective security solution for networks of various sizes. An evolving cross-network reputation system for operators will improve capital efficiency and trust within the ecosystem, benefiting both network builders and participants.
Symbiotic’s potential to support a variety of use cases has already attracted the attention of several notable projects. Ethena, Chainbound’s Bolt, Hyperlane, Marlin’s Kalypso, Fairblock, Ojo, and Rollkit are among the many projects exploring the integration of Symbiotic’s restake primitives. These collaborations span areas as diverse as cross-chain asset transfers, zero-knowledge proof markets, and application-specific security requirements, demonstrating the protocol’s diversity and broad appeal.
“Symbiotic is a shared security protocol that acts as a thin coordination layer, allowing network builders to control and orchestrate their own (re)staking implementation in a permissionless manner,” the protocol said.
As Symbiotic enters its bootstrapping phase and begins consolidating re-staked collateral, the impact of its shared security model could be very significant for the decentralized finance sector. With its focus on flexibility, risk minimization and capital efficiency, Symbiotic has the potential to become a cornerstone of the decentralized economy, powering networks to achieve greater security and coordination while enabling an inclusive and collaborative ecosystem. .
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