Restaking 101
Restaking was originally pioneered by EigenLayer and the core idea behind this technical innovation is to allow staked assets to be reused (or restaked) across multiple decentralized services. This creates a hierarchical security model where:
- Base Layer Security: The underlying blockchain provides the foundational security layer through traditional staking.
- Extended Security Coverage: Through restaking, this security is extended to additional decentralized services, which Jito calls "Node Consensus Networks" (NCNs).
- Economic Alignments: Validators are incentivized to maintain honest behavior across all networks they secure, as malicious actions could result in slashing of their stakes across multiple protocols.
This approach offers several interesting properties. Most notably, it enhances the security and integrity of NCNs, as they can leverage the economic security of the main consensus layer (such as Solana) rather than allocating significant resources to design their own, potentially weaker, security models. Furthermore, it can also increase the return on capital of staked assets, as a single asset can secure multiple decentralized services and earn additional rewards.
For more detail about restaking and its unique value proposition, please watch this video:
EigenLayr: Permissionless Feature Addition to Ethereum with Sreeram Kannan | a16z crypto research