EigenLayer, Restaking, LRTfi

EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. This primitive enables the reuse of ETH on the consensus layer. Users that stake ETH natively or with a liquid staking token (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards.

With EigenLayer, Ethereum stakers can help secure many services by restaking their staked ETH and opting-in to many services simultaneously, providing pooled security. Reusing ETH to provide security across many services reduces capital costs for a staker to participate and significantly increases the trust guarantees to individual services.

In simple terms, restaking enables:

1. ETH Stakers to restake their native or liquid (LST) staked ETH.

2. Operators of third-party validated services (usually new blockchains) to pool security from the EigenLayer's staked assets marketplace.

3. In exchange, restakers expect to receive additional rewards for securing more services, and Operators can significantly reduce their costs.

LRTfi - making your restaked capital liquid and programmable:

When restaking an LST, your deposit is locked in the EigenLayer contracts and no longer accessible, composable, and programmable. To solve this problem, new LRTfi protocols are being created to unlock this capital through the issuance of Liquid Restaked Tokens (LRTs). Layerless, as one of these LRTfi protocols, has certain specific features and extensions of its own, which are discussed in later chapters of this documentation.

Learn more about EigenLayer at https://docs.eigenlayer.xyz.