Almost a year to the day after Ethereum Protocol Eigenlayer launched his “Restakeaking” network to an unprecedented industry danger, the network finally adds a core function that was so far blindly absent: “Slashing.”

Eigen Labs hopes that Slashing-Genlayer’s system to keep the “residual aakers” honest by revoking security if they act malicious-below will realize the original pitch of the year old protocol.

“We are happy to say now that the whole promise has been delivered,” said Eigenlayer -founder Sreeram Kannan.

Eigenlayer became one of the buzziest protocols in the Ethereum history, as it introduced investors to the concept of Restring, a development of “proof-of-stake” at Ethereum.

Ethereum’s “proof-of-stake” system allows users “Ether (ETHs (Eth) security with the chain to help run and secure it in exchange for interest. Eigenlayer allows users to put ETH at Ethereum and then reInsert it again with other protocols for even more interest.

Despite the launch of its main network last year, Slashing was missing, a primary component of Eigenlayer’s common security technology, until Thursday. This led to criticism that Eigenlayer’s ambitious pitch did not match its technical reality.

Today, Egellayer boasts more than $ 7 billion in Restaked assets, making it one of the largest decentralized financing apps (DEFI). It also supports an ecosystem of 39 actively validated services (AVSS) using its security model.

The new slash system will be rolled out on Thursday, but AVS teams will have to sign up, which means it may take some time before slashes are live in any applications. Eigen Labs announced April 17 as a launch date for cutting earlier this month.

Redesign for security

Eigenlayer users Restake Ether (ETH) and other tokens through third-party “operators” infrastructure providers who delegate their total ownlayer deposits across different AVSs.

Operators who delegate efforts to an AVS help run it in exchange for rewards: The more they stick, the higher the reward.

In theory, slashes ensure that these operators run AVSs properly. If operators “have been found to be malicious according to an on-chain Ethereum contract, they may lose their share or part of their efforts,” Kannan explained.

When slashes go live on Thursday, AVSS will have the opportunity to set cut conditions and start punishing bad actors.

“Apart from Ethereum and Cosmos, most proof-of-stake systems, including Solana, drive live without any slash,” Kannan said. “Although it is the central mechanism of responsibility, it is not like any proof of the stave system already has this – that’s not true. That’s what we’re building.”

As for why Eigenlayer received so much blowback compared to other incomplete proof-of-stake systems: “We’ve talked a lot about cutting, so we’re held at that bar,” Kannan said.

Removal of leverage

Eigenlayer’s slash system was redesigned last year to tackle fears that the protocol introduced an uncertain form of leverage to the Ethereum ecosystem.

“I think we healed this problem with this redesign,” Kannan said.

The whole idea behind Eigenlayer is to let new protocols immediately utilize a large security pool – the overall pool of residual assets.

In proof-of-stake systems, the amount of assets set with a protocol corresponds to how safe it is. Generally, attacks on a protocol such as Ethereum require to check half or more of the assets stacked, which can run into billions of dollars.

Eigenlayer’s pool model has led to fear that a poorly built slash system could expose the entire protocol to new risks in which a single bad actor on an avs can hurt any operator.

The version of Eigenlayer, which goes live on Thursday, which has been tested on Ethereum’s developer network since December, was designed so that operators can limit their exposure to a given AV, which means bad actors do not necessarily affect another.

“You have a unique attribution of spell for a particular AVS,” Kannan explained. “Like AVS, I know I have 10 million of ‘Scratch’ wand that is not double spoken – so there is no leverage.”

In addition, the system has been configured, so “even though my AVs have a small amount of sharpening share, it is still protected in some sense of the large amount of capital,” Kannan said, as there are still systems in place to ensure that the cost of attacking a system increases with the total value of the pool of residual assets.