The team behind Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer and cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero introduced a system to make cross-chain communication more secure.
In a blog post on Oct. 2, LayerZero Labs announced a partnership with Eigen Labs and introduced a framework for “CryptoEconomic Decentralized Verifier Networks” (DVNs).
The system combines technical verification with financial incentives to ensure secure cross-chain messaging.
It solves several issues regarding cross-chain security, including a lack of economic incentives to ensure trust, limited participation in security and inflexibility in security models.
DVNs leverage cryptoeconomic security, in which verifiers stake assets that can be taken away or “slashed” if they act dishonestly or make mistakes.
The system has four primary mechanisms to ensure cross-chain communication security.
Verifiers lock up or stake assets like Ether (ETH), or other tokens such as the protocol’s native assets EIGEN or ZRO, as collateral. Messages are then sent and verified across blockchains.
If a discrepancy is found, tokenholders can vote on whether to veto the staked assets. The staked assets are taken away or slashed if malicious behavior is confirmed.
Stake, verify, veto, slash process for DVNs. Source: LayerZero Labs
According to the blog post, the system’s benefits include increased security for cross-chain messaging, financial incentives for honest behavior, including any network to contribute by staking assets and flexibility with various verification methods.
The framework is open source, which allows other teams to launch their own DVNs using their preferred assets to stake. This enables application-specific DVNs with customizable security parameters.
Eigen Labs explained in a blog post that previously, the security of verifying omnichannel messages was solely based on the network’s verification mechanisms. “But now, with Eigenlayer’s re-staking primitive, anyone can stake their assets to provide an extra layer of security,” it added.
Interoperability protocol LayerZero is a marketplace for DVN verifiers, with 35 entities currently participating, including ZK-proof-based teams like Polyhedra, multi-bridge attestations from Hashi, and oracles like Google Cloud, it said.
Related: EigenLayer’s EIGEN cracks top 100 market rank in trading debut
LayerZero Labs concluded that, as this framework is adopted, the future of blockchain communication will be “defined by trust, transparency, and accountability, bringing us closer to a world where cryptoeconomics secure every message across blockchains.”
EigenLayer currently has $10.8 billion in total value locked, though according to DefiLlama, that figure has fallen by almost 50% over the past four months.
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