👀Glossary

Actor

An entity participating in and fulfilling key roles within the EigenLayer network, such as Staker, Operator, or AVS provider.

AVS

A decentralized service running on EigenLayer and secured by Ethereum validators.

Cryptoeconomic Security

The approach of using cryptography and economic incentives to ensure system security, a core design principle of EigenLayer.

EigenLayer

A blockchain network that extends Ethereum's security beyond smart contracts to any decentralized service.

EigenTxs

The native token of the EigenLayer network, used for paying transaction fees and rewarding validators.

Edelib

The novel proof-of-stake consensus protocol used by EigenLayer, designed for high efficiency.

Intersubjective Faults

Disagreements arising from differing perspectives of participants, for which EigenLayer has designed fault handling mechanisms.

Operator

A participant running the infrastructure to operate an AVS, earning EigenTx token rewards.

PoS (Proof-of-Stake)

A consensus mechanism where validators are rewarded newly minted blocks proportional to their staked amounts.

Quorum

The minimum number of valid validators required to implement an AVS on EigenLayer.

Staker

An Ethereum validator providing cryptoeconomic security guarantees for an AVS in return for EigenTx rewards.

Verifiable Cloud

A decentralized, verifiable computation model that AVSs run on top of.

ZK (Zero-Knowledge)

Cryptographic techniques that allow proving the correctness of computations without revealing input data, used for EigenLayer's privacy features.

Registry

On-chain registries that coordinate between actors like stakers and operators for an AVS.

ServiceManager

Core Solidity contracts that define the rules and incentives for operating an AVS.

ECDSA/BLS Signatures

The supported digital signature schemes on EigenLayer for signing and validating data.