EigenLayer, a project focused on re-staking Ethereum, recently released the whitepaper for its protocol token, EIGEN. The whitepaper introduces several novel and complex concepts, which this article aims to explain. The article is sourced from the author ChainFeeds and is organized and written by PANews.
Summary:
EigenLayer aims to generalize the use of Ethereum nodes, allowing them to execute other business logic to increase revenue and provide additional income for users participating in ETH consensus. However, this utility also brings risks, including objective risks and uncertainties that lie in the subjective and objective realm. This uncertainty is based on “social consensus.”
Introducing the Concepts:
EigenLayer’s whitepaper introduces several new and complex concepts, including Intersubjective, Work Token, Token Forking, slashing-by-forking, and Intersubjective staking. These terms have quickly become the focus of community discussions.
Intersubjective:
Intersubjective refers to a state that lies between “objective” and “subjective.” It represents a subjective state formed among individuals, a consensus formed within a society through interaction. In the context of EigenLayer, ETH is used to avoid objective errors, while EIGEN is used to avoid Intersubjective errors.
Work Token:
Work Tokens have been discussed since around 2018, gaining more attention due to Kyle Samani from Multicoin Capital. In the Work Token model, service providers can only obtain the right to perform network work by staking the native tokens of the network. EigenLayer adopts a similar model, where users provide ETH, Liquid Restaking Protocol provides liquidity, node operators provide hardware, and AVS provides business logic.
Token Forking:
Token Forking is a novel concept. While blockchain forking typically refers to the forking of open-source code or the network itself, ERC-20 tokens are theoretically not forkable. However, EigenLayer proposes that token forking can be a safety measure. If the number of malicious attackers in the EigenLayer network exceeds half, regular users can fork the token, allowing users and AVS to choose the appropriate token based on their situation.
Weak Subjectivity in Ethereum:
Ethereum’s Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus has a concept called “weak subjectivity,” which lies between objective and subjective. It applies to PoS blockchains and requires nodes to retrieve social information and find the correct network before objectively participating in the PoS process.
In conclusion, EigenLayer’s whitepaper introduces several new concepts, including Intersubjective, Work Token, Token Forking, and Weak Subjectivity. These concepts aim to generalize the use of Ethereum nodes, provide additional revenue, and address risks and uncertainties through social consensus and objective measures.