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This article will delve into EigenDA in five parts:
1) How does EIGEN protect off-chain services?
2) Why does EigenDA emphasize throughput?
3) Comparison of EigenDA with other DA chains
4) Security analysis of EigenDA
5) Why does EigenDA emphasize throughput?
1) How does EIGEN protect off-chain services🔻
EIGEN is a specially designed token that protects various off-chain services through cryptoeconomic penalties, such as data availability, oracles, prediction markets, games, and AI. It is not like ordinary tokens that can only handle on-chain verifiable errors, but can also address "intersubjective faults" that are observable off-chain but cannot be directly verified on-chain. For example, in a prediction market, if an operator manipulates results, the community can trigger the forking of the EIGEN token through off-chain consensus to punish dishonest behavior.
EIGEN's protection mechanism is based on staking and forking: operators must stake EIGEN tokens, and if found violating rules (such as hiding data), their tokens may be slashed. This method avoids the complexity of designing separate chains for each service, providing a unified security "umbrella" for DApps relying on multiple external systems.
👇🏻EigenDA's security and comparison with other DA chains
EigenDA is a high-throughput DA solution within the EIGEN ecosystem, employing cryptoeconomic penalties rather than relying on social consensus compared to other DA chains (like altDA chains). Other DA chains must exclude violating validators through social forking, but Ethereum cannot directly observe external system errors; EIGEN ensures security through a dual quorum (EIGEN and ETH stakers), making attacks more challenging.
EigenDA also introduces "proof of custody," where nodes must prove data storage, or face ETH staking penalties. Its throughput far exceeds competitors, with the mainnet launch providing 15MB/s and aiming for over 100MB/s, meeting future high data demand applications.
2) Why does EigenDA emphasize throughput🔻
EigenDA prioritizes throughput because it aims to address the bottlenecks of Ethereum's DA, supporting high data volume scenarios like Layer 2 rollups. Its design inspiration comes from Danksharding, with throughput linearly increasing with the number of operators, ensuring efficient data availability for future applications (like games, AI).
EIGEN is an innovative token aimed at protecting various off-chain services through cryptoeconomic mechanisms, including data availability (DA), oracles, prediction markets, games, and AI.
The mechanism by which EIGEN protects off-chain services
The uniqueness of EIGEN lies in its design as a "forkable" token, meaning it can predefine which off-chain errors (such as data hiding, manipulating results) can trigger token forking, thereby protecting services through cryptoeconomic penalties. Unlike traditional ERC tokens, EIGEN focuses on handling "intersubjective faults," which are observable off-chain but cannot be directly verified on-chain.
For example, in a prediction market, if an operator manipulates results, the community can confirm malicious behavior through off-chain consensus and then trigger a fork of the EIGEN token, slashing the operator's staked tokens. This mechanism is similar to "formalized social disputes," ensuring operator honesty through economic incentives.
The protective role of EIGEN is reflected in:
🔹Versatility: A single token can protect multiple off-chain services, avoiding the complexity of designing separate chains for each service.
🔹Cryptoeconomic penalties: Operators must stake EIGEN tokens; violations (like data hiding) will lead to slashing of tokens.
🔹Simplifying DApp security models: DApps relying on multiple external systems can unify security through EIGEN, reducing complexity.
Studies show that this mechanism is particularly applicable to services needing off-chain data or computation, such as oracles (providing off-chain price data) or AI applications (off-chain model training results). For instance, if an oracle provides erroneous data, the community can trigger penalties on the EIGEN token through off-chain observation, ensuring data reliability.
The EIGEN token is currently live on the mainnet, utilizing a "dual-token model," although the forking function is not fully activated; forking similar to Layer 1 blockchains is considered a "nuclear option" and is used only to punish the majority of dishonest validators.
3) Comparison of EigenDA with other DA chains🔻
EigenDA is a high-throughput DA solution within the EIGEN ecosystem, designed to provide data availability for Ethereum's Layer 2 rollups. Compared to other DA chains (like altDA chains), EigenDA has significant advantages in security and throughput.
Traditional DA chains rely on "social punishment," which excludes violating validators through social consensus (like forking). For instance, if a validator hides data, the community must reach consensus to fork them off the chain, potentially slashing their stake. However, this method has limitations on Ethereum, as it cannot directly observe the erroneous behavior of external systems (like violations in EigenDA), making direct punishment via the Ethereum chain impossible.
EigenDA replaces social punishment with cryptoeconomic penalties, with its security model based on:
🔹Dual quorum: The quorum of EIGEN stakers and operators, and the quorum of ETH stakers. Attacking EigenDA requires compromising both quorums simultaneously, which incurs high economic costs.
🔹Proof of Custody: Nodes must prove data storage, or face ETH staking penalties, referencing 1-bit aggregation-friendly custody bonds and a 0.001-bit proof of custody.
🔹BFT: Secure under 10% to 50% honest nodes, depending on the coding rate.
In contrast, other DA chains typically have lower throughput. When the mainnet went live, EigenDA provided 15MB/s, aiming for over 100MB/s, far surpassing competitors (such as recent competitors at only 2MB/s). This high throughput benefits from its design inspiration from Danksharding, with throughput linearly increasing with the number of operators.
4) Security analysis of EigenDA🔻
The security of EigenDA is based on several aspects:
🔹Economic security: Dual protection through staking of ETH and EIGEN. EIGEN stakers face forking penalties, while ETH stakers provide implicit incentives by protecting ETH-based rollups.
🔹Dual quorum: For an unavailable data block to be accepted, both EIGEN and ETH quorums must be compromised simultaneously, which is economically challenging.
🔹Proof of Custody: Nodes must calculate and submit functions to prove data storage, or they face ETH staking slashing.
🔹BFT: Research indicates that EigenDA is secure under a certain proportion of honest nodes, depending on coding rate.
🔹Nash Equilibrium: In competitive markets, storing and providing data is a balanced strategy; any dishonest behavior (like data hiding) will lead to economic losses.
Moreover, EigenDA's trust model relies on the economic trust of ETH staking and the decentralization/independence of operators, borrowing Ethereum's security through EigenLayer. Research indicates that its purely cryptoeconomic model may lack unconditional security when all nodes collude and hide data, but such situations occur very rarely in practice.
EigenDA also plans to introduce more security features, such as permissionless dispersers, token forking, and DA sampling, to further enhance its security.
5) Why does EigenDA emphasize throughput🔻
EigenDA emphasizes throughput because it aims to address the bottlenecks of Ethereum's DA, supporting high data volume scenarios like Layer 2 rollups. While Ethereum is indisputable in security, its DA capabilities are limited, especially with the rapid increase in data demand as rollups and other Layer 2 solutions become prevalent.
EigenDA achieves linearly scalable throughput through its unique architecture, providing 15MB/s at mainnet launch with a future target of over 100MB/s. This high throughput is inspired by its design from Danksharding, allowing throughput to linearly increase with the number of operators.
Studies show that this design is particularly suitable for future applications, such as games, AI, and prediction markets, which require rapid data availability.
In contrast, Ethereum's DA capability is limited by its block size and gas fees, making it difficult to meet high throughput demands. EigenDA reduces the transaction costs of rollups by providing an efficient DA layer, enhancing the overall scalability of the ecosystem.
The design of EIGEN and EigenDA not only addresses current DA issues but also lays the foundation for future expansion:
1️⃣ Permissionless Disperser: Allows anyone to become a disperser, further enhancing decentralization.
2️⃣ Token forking: Enhances the protective capacity for off-chain services, particularly those requiring off-chain verification.
3️⃣ DA sampling: Optimizes the efficiency of data availability, reducing resource consumption.
4️⃣ Application scenario expansion: In addition to rollups, EigenDA can also support other applications requiring efficient DA, such as games, AI, and prediction markets.
📍Conclusion:
EIGEN achieves protection for all off-chain services through a universal, forkable token, avoiding the complexity of designing separate chains for each service. This approach not only simplifies the security model of DApps but also ensures the honesty of operators through cryptoeconomic penalties.
As a key application in the EIGEN ecosystem, EigenDA demonstrates the practical effects of this protection mechanism: it provides robust security through dual quorum and proof of custody, while meeting the demands of future applications through high throughput.
Compared to other DA chains, EIGEN and EigenDA's innovation lies in their unified security model, efficient throughput, and dual security guarantees, providing new possibilities for building safer and more efficient DApps.