Author: Pan Zhixiong, co-founder of ChainFeeds
EigenLayer has just released the white paper for its protocol token EIGEN, introducing many novel and complex concepts, such as Intersubjective, Work Token, Token Forking, slashing-by-forking, and Intersubjective staking, which quickly became the focus of community discussion.
The original intention of the EigenLayer protocol design was to generalize the use of Ethereum nodes, not only allowing these nodes to execute other business logic to increase revenue, but also to increase revenue for users participating in the ETH consensus. However, while increasing the utility of nodes, it also brings risks. Among these risks, in addition to the objective risks that can be directly observed, there are also some uncertain areas between the subjective and the objective. Although this uncertainty cannot be fully guaranteed by cryptography and mathematics, it is based on "social consensus." This is what is called "Intersubjective", which I prefer to translate as "social consensus".
From this, because it is "social consensus", their protocol tokens also need to be able to be forked, and if they can be forked, they need to design a dual-token isolation model, as well as the logic of initiating a fork challenge, etc. It is more like using Ethereum to implement a whole set of network logic. It has both (social) consensus and nodes, and can fork, but it is not a blockchain.
In addition, I also recalled some old anecdotes related to Work Token and Weak subjectivity as a supplement.
Work Token has been discussed since around 2018, and the reason why it is known to more people is because of Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital. In a word, under the Work Token model, service providers can only obtain the right to perform work for the network by staking the network's native tokens.
That is, nodes need to provide both tokens and services in order to get rewards. Of course, with the popularity of on-chain liquidity and DeFi protocols in recent years, the tokens that nodes need to stake can be invested by third parties without the need for the nodes themselves to take out a large amount of assets. This has become the current model of EigenLayer: users provide ETH, Liquid Restaking Protocol provides liquidity, node operators provide hardware, and AVS provides business logic.
In 2018 or earlier, the industry had various classifications of tokens. The most common classifications at the time were: value storage (such as Bitcoin), security tokens, utility tokens, work tokens, etc.
For Work Token and other token models, it is recommended to start with this article from Multicoin: https://multicoin.capital/2018/02/13/new-models-utility-tokens/
First, let’s define two key terms: Objective and Subjective. Errors caused in blockchains and decentralized networks can be classified into the following four types according to their nature:
Objective errors: These errors are based on data and cryptography and can be explicitly verified, such as the execution process of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Intersubjective errors: These errors involve social consensus between groups. When certain actions or judgments go beyond this consensus, they are considered Intersubjective errors.
Unobservable errors: These errors are only known to the victim and cannot be observed by others.
Subjective errors: These errors are based entirely on personal experience and opinions, resulting in no consensus results.
EigenLayer believes that unobservable errors and subjective errors are difficult to correct, so it proposes to use ETH to avoid objective errors and EIGEN to avoid Intersubjective errors.
The concept of Intersubjective can be seen as a state between "objective" and "subjective". The word is a combination of "Inter" (meaning "between" or "mutually", like Interactive's "interactive" and Internet's "internet") and Subjective. Therefore, Intersubjective refers to a subjective state formed between individuals, and is a consensus formed through interaction within society.
If you ask ChatGPT what Intersubjective means, it will tell you a difficult-to-understand Chinese translation: "mutual subjectivity".
For example, in the financial market, the statement "1 BTC = 1 USD" is generally not accepted, and this wrong consensus can be classified as an Intersubjective error. Therefore,if we want to explain Intersubjective, we can understand it as "social consensus", that is, the common acceptance of certain ideas or facts within a group.
Although there is a subtle difference between "social consensus" and Intersubjective in academic and professional discussions-Intersubjective focuses more on describing the sharing process of subjective experience and knowledge between individuals, while "social consensus" focuses more on the results of joint decision-making and actions.
Briefly review the EigenLayer protocol, users can deposit ETH into the Liquid Restaking Protocol, and then these protocols will pledge these ETH to run Ethereum verification nodes, which will also run various middleware businesses such as AVS (such as oracles, cross-chain bridges, data availability, etc.) to provide services for terminal applications.
For AVS, it can also be divided into two types: objective and intersubjective. Objective AVS is based on cryptography and mathematics, which can be clearly quantified and verified. In the EigenLayer design, these AVS can rely on Restaking ETH as a security guarantee. Intersubjective AVS, taking the oracle as an example, because the off-chain data cannot be verified on the chain, it can only rely on the social consensus between nodes. The data recognized by enough nodes is credible.
In summary, Restaking ETH will be used as the work token of the objective AVS in the EigenLayer protocol, and EIGEN will be used as the work token of the Intersubjective AVS.
Token Forking is also a novel concept. The so-called forkable characteristics of blockchain usually refer to open source code or network (that is, the chain itself), while ERC-20 tokens are theoretically not forkable, at least they do not have this ability. Because tokens are a smart contract, they are completely dependent on the objective properties of EVM.
However, EigenLayer believes that under their framework, the forkability of tokens is a bottom-line safety measure, even if it is rare. If the number of malicious attackers in the EigenLayer network exceeds half, ordinary users can fork tokens in this way, and then all users and AVS can choose the corresponding tokens according to their own circumstances. In fact, it is to let social consensus decide which token is the most orthodox. They also call this concept slashing-by-forking, which is also derived from an article written by Vitalik Buterin 9 years ago.
In order to support this forkability, a lot of logic needs to be added to support it. For example, if the token is forkable, can EIGEN still be used as collateral for the lending agreement? Therefore, they designed a dual-token isolation model, EIGEN cannot be forked, but another bEIGEN can be forked. And also designed the challenge process for initiating a fork, as well as compensation logic, etc.
But in fact, Ethereum’s PoS consensus has long had a concept called “weak subjectivity” (invented by Vitalik Buterin), which is also a concept between “objective” and “subjective”. And only blockchains with PoS consensus have the attribute of Weak subjectivity.
For PoW networks, since computing power competition is a real cost, the longest chain is the safest and can be considered completely “objective”. For PoS networks, the cost of producing blocks is negligible and the cost of attack is also very low, so for nodes that have just joined the network, they need to retrieve social information and find this “weak subjectivity”. Only after joining the correct network can they objectively participate in the PoS process. Therefore, there are some “subjective” factors before entering the correct network.
However, for nodes that have entered the accurate Ethereum network to participate in consensus, all consensus processes and EVM operation processes are objective and guaranteed by cryptography and mathematics. For example, the certainty of EVM input and output, and the situations of double signing and slashing are also clear rules.
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