EigenLayer is a protocol that aims to leverage ether staked with Ethereum validators to secure third-party protocols through a process called restaking. It is designed to provide security services built on its framework, with nodes expected to receive service payments.

EigenLayer intends to capitalize on the economic security afforded by Ethereum’s estimated $380 billion market cap.

Economic security is the value of financial resources needed to take down a network. For example, to compromise the Ethereum network, the largest proof of stake chain, an adversary must control at least half of the staked value, amounting to over $190 billion — making attacks economically impractical.

As such, EigenLayer plans to adopt a “shared security” system — a mechanism allowing protocols to join the …