EigenLayer has emerged as a leader in cryptoeconomic security by introducing restaking - a new approach that allows staked ETH to be used for cryptoeconomic security for protocols other than Ethereum. At its core, the system relies on a fundamental principle: operators put up collateral and get slashed if they fail to perform their duties, creating a strong economic incentive for good behavior.
However, implementing this crucial security mechanism has faced a major engineering challenge. To slash an AVS operator, EigenLayer needs to precisely calculate their staked position, which involves tracking multiple onchain balances. Sounds easy right? Well, while this data exists onchain, accessing it through traditional Solidity calls is expensive and, for some configurations, impossible - we’re talking about operations that could exceed 50,000,000 gas for a single call. Now multiply this by the number of AVSs, and multiply it again by the frequency of calculating these staked positions.
Boundless’ correctness and liveness is critical to the security of AVSs that use this service. Any compromise in accurately calculating staked positions would undermine the entire cryptoeconomic security framework.
We have mission-critical calculations that are prohibitively expensive to perform onchain, yet absolutely essential for security. This is where ZK shines. Through Boundless, RISC Zero’s protocol, we’re enabling Eigenlayer to move these intensive computations offchain while maintaining security and liveness guarantees.
Here’s how it works: Boundless regularly processes the full state of staked positions across the EigenLayer AVS ecosystem, generating zero-knowledge proofs of these calculations. These proofs are used to construct a merkle tree, which is then posted onchain. This whole process reduces the gas usage by 99.9%, finally making it possible at scale. When slashing needs to occur, the system can efficiently verify positions via merkle inclusions, making the process both significantly cost-effective, yet cryptographically secure. In addition, the merkle roots proven through Boundless allow economical transportation and verification of AVS outputs on other chains.
But there’s another crucial aspect: liveness. In a system handling critical operations like slashing, proof generation must be consistently available and censorship resistant. The Boundless protocol’s architecture ensures these proofs are generated in a fully decentralized, trustless manner - a non-negotiable requirement for Eigenlayer’s security infrastructure. Through this integration,
Boundless demonstrates how zero-knowledge proofs can solve real, pressing challenges in decentralized trust.
Interested in leveraging Boundless for your protocol?
Fill out our testnet interest form to get started.
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