Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer rolls out its revolutionary ‘slashing’ feature, penalizing malicious operators and enhancing ‘proof-of-stake’ security and accountability.
EigenLayer Completes Its Original Vision with the Launch of Slashing Feature
A Critical Accountability Measure to Address Security Concerns
A year after its launch, Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is rolling out the critical ‘slashing‘ feature meant to address lingering security concerns. This feature penalizes operators who act maliciously, enhancing ‘proof-of-stake’ security and accountability.
EigenLayer now secures over $7 billion in restaked assets across 39 actively validated services. The new slashing system will roll out on Thursday, but AVS teams will need to opt-in, meaning it may take some time before slashing is live in any applications.
Redesigning for Safety
In theory, slashing ensures these operators are running AVSs correctly. If operators ‘are proven to be malicious according to an on-chain Ethereum contract, then they may lose their stake or a portion of their stake,’ explained EigenLayer CEO Sreeram Kannan.
EigenLayer’s slashing system was redesigned last year to address fears that the protocol introduced an unsafe form of leverage to the Ethereum ecosystem. The entire idea behind EigenLayer is to allow new protocols to immediately tap into a large security pool — the total pool of restaked assets.
Removing Leverage
The version of EigenLayer going live Thursday, which has been tested on Ethereum’s developer networks since December, was designed so operators can limit their exposure to a given AVS. This means bad actors on one won’t necessarily impact another.
‘You have unique attributability of stake to a particular AVS,’ explained Kannan. ‘As an AVS, I know I have, like, 10 million of ‘slashable’ stake that is not double counted — so there is no leverage.’
Additionally, the system has been configured so that ‘even if my AVS has a small amount of slashable stake, it is still protected in some sense, by the large amount of capital,’ said Kannan.
