What

EigenLayer is a platform for protocol participants to make credible commitments to one another. On EigenLayer, AVSs have tools to make economic commitments to their end users, such as proper or fair execution of their code run by Operators. With Rewards v2, EigenLayer enables AVSs to issue rewards to Operators and Stakers when the AVS’ services are properly run (the carrot). With this Slashing upgrade, EigenLayer will give AVSs the ability to slash stake in instances where the commitments to properly run their services are provably broken (the stick).

The slashing upgrade is an upgrade that strengthens the credible commitments AVSs can make to their users by penalizing (i.e. slashing) Operators for not properly running their services. These commitments are designed and deployed by AVSs, and can range from faults like incorrect computation, liveness failures, and more. Explicitly, this upgrade adds two new features to facilitate the slashing mechanism: [Unique Stake and Operator Sets](https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/introducing-the-eigenlayer-security-model/#:~:text=Operator Sets are Versatile and Extensible&text=It can specify slashing conditions,these rewards will be distributed.).

Unique Stake guarantees that an Operator’s specific slashable stake can be allocated only to one AVS at a particular time. This single pairing strengthens the AVS's security without creating exogenous risk to other AVSs or the protocol at large. Operator Sets provide an in-protocol structure that enshrines the segmentation of Operators into local groups for the accounting, allocation, and slashing of staked security.

Together these features enable:

  1. Opt-in task-specific slashing for Operators, where they may take on slashing risk in return for AVS rewards,
  2. Launching of more AVSs on mainnet, by giving them tools to make more cryptoeconomic commitments to their users,
  3. Use of the Unique Stake model by ecosystem participants to better understand risk, reward, and operating models for AVS infrastructure.

With Unique Stake and Operator Sets, Operators have fine-grained control over slashable stake in accordance with their acceptable risk and competencies. These unlock slashing, slashing unlocks the creativity of AVSs, and unlocking AVS creativity allows them to reach users and reward Stakers and Operators.

When

The mainnet date is 4/17.

How It Will Affect you

The slashing upgrade introduces the following specific features on EigenLayer:

An Operator Set is a logical and segmented set of Operators created by the AVS. These groups of Operators may be split up for whatever reason an AVS can think of. AVSs may assign arbitrary “tasks” to Operator Sets that can represent anything Operators may be asked to do. Tasks could include computation, proof verification, signature aggregation, liveness pings, or something entirely creative. Operator Sets are the exclusive organizational level at which Operators allocate Unique Stake as slashable security for AVSs and where AVSs slash stake in the case of faults.

Unique Stake is an accounting tool defined on the level of Operator Sets that ensures AVSs and Operators maintain key safety properties when handling staked security and slashing on EigenLayer. Unique Stake is allocated to different Operator Sets on an opt-in basis by Operators. Only Unique Stake is slashable by AVSs, and it represents proportions of the Operator’s delegated stake from Stakers.

This upgrade adds new protocol interfaces and primitives for Operator Sets, Unique Stake Allocations, and Slashing to provide: