Restaking
Restaking involves reusing staked assets on a blockchain to secure other protocols, potentially earning additional rewards, building on the security of the original stake.
## Overview
Restaking creates a marketplace for validatior security. Validators who have already staked ETH to secure the Ethereum mainnet can 'restake' that same ETH (or LSTs) to secure other services known as Actively Validated Services (AVS), such as oracles, bridges, or sidechains.
## Mechanism
1. Opt-In: Validatiors modify their withdrawal credentials to point to the Restaking Protocol (e.g., EigenLayer).
2. AVS Selection: Validators verify software for specific AVSs they wish to secure.
3. Slashing enforcement: If the validator misbehaves on the AVS, their staked ETH on mainnet can be frozen or slashed.
## Trade-offs
- Pros: Higher yield for stakers, lower bootstrap cost for new protocols.
- Cons: Increased risk of slashing, systemic leverage risk to Ethereum mainnet.
graph LR
Center["Restaking"]:::main
Pre_staking["staking"]:::pre --> Center
click Pre_staking "/terms/staking"
Pre_smart_contract["smart-contract"]:::pre --> Center
click Pre_smart_contract "/terms/smart-contract"
Center --> Child_eigenlayer["eigenlayer"]:::child
click Child_eigenlayer "/terms/eigenlayer"
Rel_liquid_staking["liquid-staking"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_liquid_staking "/terms/liquid-staking"
Rel_modular_blockchain["modular-blockchain"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_modular_blockchain "/terms/modular-blockchain"
Rel_eigenlayer["eigenlayer"]:::related -.-> Center
click Rel_eigenlayer "/terms/eigenlayer"
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🧠 Knowledge Check
🧒 Explain Like I'm 5
You are a security guard ([Validator](/en/terms/validator)) heavily armed (Staked ETH) to protect a bank ([Ethereum](/en/terms/ethereum)). Restaking is like agreeing to use those same weapons to also guard the coffee shop across the street (AVS) during your break, earning extra pay but risking getting fired (Slashed) if you fail at either job.
🤓 Expert Deep Dive
Restaking abstracts 'Pooled Security'. It decouples the consensus layer from the execution layer further by allowing the consensus set to fragment its attention across multiple state machines. The core innovation is the programmable slashing condition encoded in the smart contracts, allowing unrelated protocols to inherit the economic finality of Ethereum.