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Restaking Overview

Liquid & Native Restaking

Liquid restaking is the process of depositing "liquid" tokens, including LSTs, EIGEN token, and any ERC20 token into the EigenLayer smart contracts. For more information about adding new ERC20 tokens, refer to Add an ERC-20 Token as a Restakable Asset.

Native restaking is the process of changing an Ethereum validator's withdrawal credentials to EigenLayer's smart contracts. You must operate an Ethereum Validator node in order to participate in Native Restaking. To learn more or set up your Ethereum Validator please follow this link from the Ethereum Foundation.

EigenPod Overview

An EigenPod is a smart contract managed by users, designed to facilitate the EigenLayer protocol in monitoring and managing balance and withdrawal statuses. Please review the following considerations when planning your EigenPod and validator operations:

  • You may repoint any number of validators to a single EigenPod.
  • An Ethereum address (wallet) can only deploy a single EigenPod instance.
  • The address that deploys an EigenPod becomes the owner of the contract (EigenPod Owner) and gains permission for restaking and withdrawal operations.
  • Ownership of an EigenPod cannot be transferred.

Checkpoint Proofs

Checkpoint Proofs convert native validator ETH and validator yield to actively restaked shares. These proofs are initiated before any Restaking or Withdrawal action and are necessary to prove the expected funds are deposited in the EigenPod and/or validator. Checkpoint proofs are a two step process:

  1. Starting a Checkpoint: this step occurs once.
  2. Verify (and Completing) a Checkpoint: this step occurs multiple times until all of the remaining unproven ETH balance in the EigenPod has been proven.

Delegation

Delegation is the process of assigning Restaked balance to an Operator. The Restaker will receive fees according to the AVSs that the Operator chooses to run. Restakers can undelegate their balance to end their assignment to the Operator and later redelegate the balance to a new Operator.

Please note the following conditions:

  • Stakers can only delegate to a single Operator at a time.
  • Delegation is an "all or nothing" operation. You must delegate all of your available Restaked balance to a single Operator.
  • Delegation is not possible for Native Restakers while their validators are in the activation (aka entry) queue. Native Restaked tokens must be fully Restaked and proven on-chain before they can be delegated.
  • If you have already delegated your stake to an operator, all new stakes will be delegated to the same operator automatically.
  • If the delegated Operator is no longer in the active set of an AVS (such as due to operator ejection), the Restaker has the option to Redelegate their TVL balance to another Operator.

Slashing

important

When the Slashing and Operator Set upgrade is live on mainnet, stake can become slashable for a Staker that has previously delegated stake to an Operator. Stakers are responsible for ensuring that they fully understand and confirm their risk tolerances for existing and future delegations to Operators and the Operator’s slashable allocations. Additionally, stakers are responsible for continuing to monitor the allocations of their chosen Operators as they update allocations across various Operator Sets.

When the Slashing and Operator Sets upgrade is live on mainnet, AVSs can create Operator Sets that may include slashable Unique Stake, and Operators can allocate their delegated stake to Operator Sets. If a Staker has previously delegated stake to an Operator, the delegated stake becomes slashable when the Operator opts into an Operator Set and allocates Unique Stake.

Stakers are responsible for understanding the increased risk posed by allocation of their delegated stake as slashable Unique Stake to an AVS. While the allocation of delegated stake to an Operator Set may be subject to the Allocation Config Delay and Allocation Delay, it is important to understand the increased risk.

For more information on the safety delays for Stakers, refer to the :

Escrow Period (Withdrawal Delay)

EigenLayer contracts feature a withdrawal delay for all Liquid and Native restaking, a critical security measure for instances of vulnerability disclosure or when anomalous behavior is detected by monitoring systems. Please see Withdrawal Delay for more detail.