Re-staking protocol EigenLayer’s slashing testnet was launched on December 20, and mainnet launch awaits approval of EigenLayer Improvement Protocol-002 (ELIP-002).
The potential slashing upgrade introduces unique stake allocations for node operators and operator sets for EigenLayer’s Actively Validated Services (AVS).
EigenLayer’s Actively Validated Services is a project that leverages the security of the Ethereum layer-1 network to validate off-chain services.
More specifically, Ether (stETH) staked on Ethereum L1 serves as staking collateral across the blockchain ecosystem without having to unstake the asset from L1.
Unique stake allocation allows the re-staking operator, EigenLayer’s re-staking validator, to minimize cut risk by designating a portion of staked funds as “unique stake” that can only be cut by one AVS. This protects your equity capital from unrelated work or actively verified services.
Operator sets provide Actively Validated Services with options to organize operators into groups, assign tasks, and define slashing parameters.
Slashing increases trust in the blockchain ecosystem by penalizing validators or re-staking operators by taking a portion of staked funds for errors, service failures, or dishonest behavior.
These reduced penalties are intended to ensure that validators maintain on-chain integrity for the networks they serve.
Illustration of an operator delegating its own stake. source: ELIP-002 GitHub
relevant: The Eigen Foundation pledges 1% of EIGEN supply to the ETH Protocol Guild.
EigenLayer’s AVS Community Grows
RedStone becomes the first major oracle provider to deploy AVS on EigelLayer. The data validation service has been launched on EigenLayer in testnet mode with plans to expand the network over time.
RPC node provider Infura also announced plans to launch with AVS on EigenLayer as part of its Decentralized Infrastructure Network (DIN) expansion.
Infura’s DIN is a decentralized API marketplace for Web3 developers.
In a blog post on December 6, EigenLayer announced that it was upgrading its redeposit rewards. The upgrade, launching in January 2025, will give Actively Validated Services the option to distribute rewards to operators based on performance.
EigenLayer is currently focused on onboarding Actively Validated Services and consumer crypto applications to the re-staking protocol.
EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan recently told Cointelegraph that consumer-facing applications are the final part of EigenLayer’s four-part marketplace, which includes node operators, Acrively Validated Services, and asset resellers.
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