Sreeram Kannan - Introducing Programmable Trust + EigenLayer Roadmap
Summary
TLDRRahul outlines his vision to build Ion Layer as a coordination engine enabling open innovation on Ethereum. He explains how Ion Layer allows permissionless programmable staking, allowing anyone to build new services like rollups, co-processors, and cryptographic methods that reuse Ethereum's security. This creates positive-sum games via innovation and coordination. Rahul argues Ion Layer's shared security model is superior and mutually beneficial. He then overviews the launch roadmap - staking is live, the full ecosystem with services but no payments/slashing will launch next, and finally payments and slashing will be added.
Takeaways
- π Ianler enables permissionless programmable staking on top of Ethereum, allowing anyone to build new middleware services
- π Ianler brings together stakers and operators to provide shared security across services, which is strictly better than segregated security
- π‘ Ianler serves as a coordination layer for open innovation, upon which many emergent services like rollups, co-processors, new cryptography methods etc. can be built
- π Services built on Ianler, like the data availability service Iganda, are akin to SAS services in web2, which can be combined to build end-user applications
- π There are economies of scale in Ianler - applications using multiple services needn't buy separate insurance for each
- π Ianler provides elastic scaling of security via a pooled amount, allowing services to draw varying security needs over time
- β€οΈ In upcoming versions, Ianler will support attributable security via pre-purchasable insurance, in addition to pooled security
- π The Ianler launch is divided into 3 stages - staking (live), full ecosystem without payments, and finally payments & slashing
- β A testnet covering the full Ianler ecosystem except payments will launch soon, targeting mainnet next quarter
- π There is tremendous excitement over emergent use cases like rollups, co-processors, cryptography methods that Ianler enables
Q & A
What is the subtitle of the talk about the coordination engine for open innovation referring to?
-The subtitle refers to Ian layer acting as a coordination layer that enables open innovation of new digital platforms and services, similar to how governments act as a coordination layer on top of which free market economies can thrive.
What are the two main types of positive sum games?
-The two main types of positive sum games are innovation and coordination. Innovation involves creating value out of something that had little or no value before. Coordination involves multiple parties working together to create something greater than what they could create individually.
How does reaking on Ian layer allow for permissionless programmable staking?
-Reaking involves staking your ETH and making additional promises or taking on additional conditions beyond just running the Ethereum protocol correctly. This allows anyone to build middleware services on top of IG layer that make use of the staked ETH, enabling permissionless innovation.
What are some examples of rollup services that can be built on IG layer?
-Some examples of rollup services that can be built on IG layer include decentralized sequencing infrastructure, faster bridges between rollups and Ethereum, mempool services to handle transaction load, and watchtower services to monitor rollups for faults or fraud.
What does IG layer allow in terms of co-processors?
-IG layer allows co-processors that can run computations like AI or database queries off-chain, with the inputs and outputs brought back to Ethereum. This greatly expands what can be built on Ethereum.
How does shared security provide better security than segregated security?
-With shared security across services on IG layer, an attacker would need to acquire enough capital to attack the entire pooled validator set to compromise any one service. This raises the security bar compared to attacking services individually.
Outlines
π Introduction and Overview
The speaker introduces himself, gives an overview of the vision for the Ian layer project as the coordination engine for open innovation, and explains the concept of positive-sum games and how innovation and coordination enable value creation.
π Explaining Ian Layer and Reaking
The speaker explains what Ian layer and reaking is - it allows permissionless programmable staking by restaking ETH and taking on additional covenants beyond the Ethereum protocol. This allows building of new middleware services and applications.
π‘ Categories of Services Using Ian Layer
The speaker categorizes the types of services that can be built on Ian layer - rollup services like data availability, sequencers, bridges etc.; co-processors to run computations and bring results on-chain; new cryptographic techniques like TEEs, proofs; and Ethereum-specific services.
π Benefits of Ian Layer's Shared Security Model
The speaker explains benefits of Ian layer's shared security model - it provides stronger pooled security, attributable security via slash insurance, economies of scale, and elastic scaling to meet varying security needs.
π Ian Layer Launch Roadmap
The speaker outlines the launch roadmap - Stage 1 of staking is live, Stage 2 will launch the ecosystem without economic components, and Stage 3 will add payments and slashing.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘open innovation
π‘coordination layer
π‘programmable staking
π‘modular services
π‘shared security
π‘elastic scaling
π‘rollup services
π‘co-processors
π‘cryptographic proofs
π‘event driven actions
Highlights
Innovation is a positive-sum game where we take something and make a resource out of a non-resource
Coordination is another powerful positive-sum game where parties come together to create something greater than the sum of the parts
The government acts as a coordination layer on top of which there is a free market economy for innovation, similar to what we want to build digitally
Igan layer works with Ethereum to provide decentralized trust and allow building of arbitrary new digital platforms
Igan layer allows building of new middleware services like decentralized software as a service, catalyzing innovation
Stakers on Igan layer make additional promises and take on more conditions beyond just staking ETH to provide programmable trust
Igan layer allows building rollup services like data availability, decentralized sequencing, faster bridges to help scale Ethereum
Co-processors built on Igan layer allow running computations like AI and bringing results to Ethereum
New cryptography services like trusted execution environments, secret sharing, secure multiparty computation can be built
Location proofs, proofs of identity, proofs of distinct devices accessing a service can be built and integrated
Shared security provides better protection by requiring massive capital to attack any one service
Insurance allows both shared and attributable security - get pooled protection but also guaranteed payouts if slashed
Economies of scale - don't need separate insurance for each service, just get coverage at the Igan layer level
Elastic scaling of security - large pool of staked ETH allows services to get varying security needs met flexibly
Launching full Igan layer ecosystem soon with stakers, operators, services before adding payments and slashing
Transcripts
uh good morning everybody Welcome to The
reaking Summit it's my uh real pleasure
to welcome you all here uh I'm sham uh I
started this uh Ian layer project you
know two and a half years back and it
has been uh really exciting for us to
see all the progress from there um what
I'm going to do in today's uh talk is
try to set the context for why we doing
what we're doing what is our vision for
what we want to build and how we can all
partake in actually
okay um how we can all work together in
actually making this happen um as you
can see the subtitle of this talk is the
coordination engine for open Innovation
um really this is where uh I want to
give a little bit of uh orientation
around this uh title um to start with uh
you know if you think about it if you
zoom out there are only certain kind
kind of positive some games what's a
positivism game you know when we're
engaging in Collective action certain
kinds of games are win- win or positive
sum so that there's a net positive
created out of these games and if you
think about it fundamentally there are
only two kinds of prototypical postive
sum games number one is innovation
Innovation is when you take something
and make a resource out of a
non-resource right you can take air and
you make spectr from you take oil you
make energy you take sand and you make
silicon like these are innovations that
transform like one kind of a resource to
another you know a non-resource into a
resource really um highly positive for
everybody and Innovation is also like
this that if I have an idea and you have
an idea and we exchange it both of us
have two ideas clearly positive sum
unlike other resources which are finite
and you cannot create more of so
Innovation is one stere typical
prototypical or postive some game
there's another one which is also very
powerful coordination coordination is
when many parties come together and
create something which is greater than
the sum of the parts right if they work
together if we all work together we can
do something which is much bigger than
what we can all do just going our own
separate ways um and if you look at
these two different types of posm games
there's Echo of this structure
everywhere that you look you know in
working systems so you can think of like
you know these two structures interlay
and work together with each other in
very powerful ways in different examples
um and one example is let's say you know
you take a country like the United
States um on the you know or any you
know successful country for that matter
you'd see that basically the government
acts as like a coordination layer on top
of which there is a free market a
competitive economy which can be built
on top of it which is you know akin to
open
Innovation and what we're aspiring to
here is for to to do this for digital
platforms essentially
coordination
via bringing decentralized trust who
brings trust you know trust trust is
created through like this decentralized
Collective you know in our vision
ethereum and igen layer work together to
actually create this on top of which
anybody can build arbitrary new digital
platforms which can compose with each
other and you know in our in our
ecosystem we call this AVS you know
actively validated services or you can
also think of these as uh like a
decentralized version of software as a
service that we um we see in the cloud
okay before I go in into explaining uh
you know what all we can do with this
kind of a platform I'm going to start
with the basics like for some of you who
may not be aware uh just a couple of
minutes so I in I lay what we do is we
bring together a variety of parties so I
mentioned being a coordination layer
what does it mean to be a coordination
layer you need to bring together
different kinds of parties that work
together to actually achieve a certain
goal and in our case uh it is
mainly the first side of this is stakers
so what happens is in ethereum right
what you do is you go and stake your e
stake your e what does it mean to stake
your e you put it into a contract and
then make a promise that you will hold
to the conditions and the Covenant of
the ethereum protocol what Igan layer
does is to make
this much more expansive so we call this
reaking reaking is you stake your wreath
and then you're adding on a additional
conditions taking on additional
covenants making additional promises uh
that's what you you know it's now
popularly called reaking in fact we're
calling this the reaking summit but if
you want to be really precise you would
call it permissionless programmable
staking that's really what it is what do
I mean by that so you take the e that's
staked in ethereum and then subject
yourself to additional programmable sets
of
conditions so when you take it into I
layer you're basically saying hey I'm
going to run any kinds of new middleware
Services actively validated Services
whatever you want to call it but
essentially what what you're doing is
you're saying hey I'm I'm taking my eat
and normally when I'm staking I'm
promising that I'm running the ethereum
protocol correctly but now I'm going to
promise that I run all these Services
correctly okay um and when somebody
wants to build an ABS essentially
they're talking we're talking about
building two things
number one they can build arbitrary
software you know a container in which
they can house and deploy arbitary
software and a smart contract so I
itself is a smart contract in ethereum
but it allows anybody to build new smart
contracts that talk to the IG ler
contract any new middleware or AVS can
build a new smart contract that talks to
the a l contracts and this the AVS
contract can SP ify the payment
condition the slashing conditions and
the registration conditions who can
register how much do they get paid and
how much should they get slashed so
that's the overall structure of how you
build uh how we are able to use Aon
layer to actually take the underlying
decentralized trust from ethereum and
then Supply it to any kinds of new
middlewares or services that can then be
built on top you can think of this as
the kind of open Innovation layer
anybody can build these new new kinds of
services okay so in the last slide I
call this permissionless programmable
staking right why is it programmable
staking because you're staking and then
other people permissionless can create
these middlewares and services that can
consume your staking and then create new
kinds of services based on that so you
can think of Ian lir as being a paradigm
for programmable trust okay so you know
at the base of all of this we have the I
layer Shad security system they're
calling it you another way of thinking
about it is a Shad security system why
are we calling it Shad security the same
stake or the same pool of validators are
actually sharing that security to a
variety of different applications so
that's another like model for thinking
about this there are really two things
that power this Shad security system on
the one side we have the eat staking
people can stake eat and this provides a
certain amount of of Economic Security
Economic Security means if you know that
if your service is not run correctly you
you will be able to slash a certain
amount of
e there's also a certain amount of
decentralization you because you're
borrowing the same set of node operators
that you know run something like
ethereum you can borrow the
decentralization and this gives you a a
certain amount of collusion resistance
that these are distinct operators you
know neutral set which which is actually
participating to validate your service
so these are the two dimensions of
programmable trust that are uh created
from the I lay ecosystem and now what
can you do with this you can actually
start uh building a variety of different
things and one way to like root this
thing is to take an analogy from like
the pre crypto or the web2 world and you
know you can think of in the cloud
era the you know if if you think back to
1995 and you want to build an
application you have to build your own
like you know server stack you have to
build your own you know uh
authentication payments database
everything yourself as well as building
whatever application you want this is
what you would have done if you wanted
to do web application development in
1995 in 2023 that's not what you would
do you would go basically use a cloud
service you there is a bunch of software
as a service solutions SAS Solutions on
top like o like mongodb like um you know
stripe all these things and then you
know when you want to build an end user
application you just concatenate these
pieces correctly and then you can build
whatever application you want leading to
much higher velocity of innovation how
can we kind of see an echo of this in
the uh crypto
world so you know one can start thinking
about what kinds of you know the the
middlewares and avss the actively
validated services that can be built on
top of won layer as something Akin into
these SAS services and then end user
applications can then build on top of
these services so what I'll do next is
give you like a little bit of idea of
what kinds of services can be built on
top of wag so you can categorize them in
many different ways here are a few so
number one is rollup services like
categories of services so if you think
about the ethereum road map one of the
biggest things going on in the theum
road map is the rollup Centric road map
the idea that that is going going to be
lots of rollups these rollups offload
computation from ethereum and are able
to therefore scale the whole ethereum uh
stack and in the rollup era there's lots
of rollup adjacent services that you
know may be interesting and we're seeing
a bunch of them being built you know
we're building the first one ourselves
Igan da the data availability service
the way to think about this is when
you're offloading computation you still
need a place to publish the inputs and
outputs of said computation
you know if I publish the inputs and
outputs of the computation anybody else
can then verify that I'm doing the
computation correctly so that's called a
data availability or a data publishing
system we're building Igan da as a data
availability system on using IG layer
but there's lots of other rollup
services that we're seeing emerging in
uh on the I lay ecosystem for example uh
rollups have a single Central sequencer
which orders all the transactions can we
instead build a decentralized
sequencing infrastructure on top of Ian
layer rollups take a certain lag before
they settle onto ethereum you may want
faster Bridges and there's a variety of
different Bridges being built on Ian lir
when how to handle the me that occurs in
the um rollup ecosystem you may want to
build all kinds of interesting me
services for example I want to say build
an encrypted mol for a rollup so which
means you need a bunch of nodes these
node needs needs to participate in some
kind of threshold cryptography so that
when you send a transaction no one node
is able to actually see the transaction
it's encrypted but then after the
transaction is included then it you can
actually decrypt it so you can build me
services on Igan layer and another
category that we've seen emerge is
watchtowers you know if you have not one
or two or three optimistic rollups but
thousands of optimistic rollups which is
there we going towards you have to make
sure that there are people who are
actually watching what's going on in
these rollups and trigger a fraud alert
or a fault alert when such a thing
happens you need a neutral set of nodes
to do this so again you know a new
category that we're seeing on
ier so this is rollup Services another
category which I I'm quite excited about
personally is the family of
co-processors how do you think about a
co-processor you're sitting on ethereum
and then let's say you want to run an AI
application and then get the output of
such AI application onto ethereum this
would be an example of a co-processor
you know you on ethereum you're in the
evm programming environment but I want
to access running all kinds of other
outputs you know maybe you want to run a
Linux machine uh and a program you know
for which you made a commitment and then
you want to say that hey if you run this
program then this is the output and then
bring it all back to ium to be an
example of a co-processor you want to
run a database a SQL query on a major
database and then you want to say the
inputs the outputs of said SQL query you
want to bring it back to ethereum you
want to run like a ZK service and then
you want to bring you know the outputs
of such cryptography all of these could
be examples of co-process we're seeing
many of these uh show up on ION
layer the next category is you know new
kinds of cryptographic methods um you
know I'll talk about the ioner service
which is a new uh service that we are
building later but there are things like
trusted execution environments I want to
run like a trusted execution environment
committee a trusted execution
environment is a hardware device which
has certain kinds of you know uh there
is a little bit of trust assumption in
the manufacturer like Intel and uh AMD
and and Android all of these different
Hardware manufacturers have different te
environments but you know to be able to
access te networks on you know on
ethereum is a very interesting use case
you know things like secret sharing I
want to take a secret and encode it and
send it through the network so that
nobody has access to the secret but it's
spread all through the network um you
know more more General version of that
is the secure multiparty computation or
you know fully homomorphic encryption
we're seeing all of these new categories
emerge on igon layer um there's also
other kinds of things that one can do um
you know bring proofs of various kinds
into uh the ethereum ecosystem what
kinds of proofs am I talking about
suppose you want to know like where a
node operator is located a prove of
location you may want to get uh an
attestation that basically promises what
the prove of location of a certain uh
node operator is and and one way to do
it is have a decentralized group of
nodes which ping each other through the
native peer-to-peer Network to actually
then figure out what the Ping latencies
are you you know there are systems like
this being built proof of mashhood which
is a new kind of idea from automata
which is basically the idea that I want
to know like how many distinct devices
that you know somebody is logging in
from a distinct machine a distinct Apple
phone or a distinct Android uh you want
to have proofs of identity I want to log
into a https server and then you know
get the authenticated certificate into
ethereum you know there's a bunch of
protocols like reclaim building this um
there's also you know so all these other
services are things you would want
irrespective of the fact that these are
particularly ethereum stakers right they
need a certain amount of Economic
Security they need a certain amount of
decentralization but there's also the
fact that because we're doing restating
of e it's the ethereum block proposal
that are participating in the ecosystem
and you can start doing interesting
things on the uh on the ethereum side
for example managing me on the ethereum
L1 you can start thinking about event
driven actions whenever certain sets of
things are triggered you have to
actually you know for example whenever
there's a liquidation then that
liquidation has to be taken and these
these kinds of event driven actions for
example improve the usability of these
platforms massively because you know
imagine that like you're running a def
platform and you need to calculate the
time to uh you know you need to
calculate how much over
collateralization you you need it's
basically the time to liquidation which
is actually determining the over
collateralization factor and by reducing
the time to liquidation you can actually
get very tight systems um another system
which is you know new newly proposed is
the idea of based sequencing where like
you know from Justin Drake the idea that
ethereum L1 itself can actually do uh
ordering transactions for rollups but
when you're doing that one of the things
you may want to do is how do you get
like fast pre-confirmation and if there
is ethereum Stak by the block proposers
on ethereum then and and they're restak
on agal then you could basically start
doing things like pre-confirmation they
make a certificate that hey I am going
to include your transaction and send it
to you right away in an instant and then
later if they don't they get slashed so
these are the different examples I this
is not an exhaustive list but the but
the types of things that we starting to
see on on Ion
lay and the way we think about it is the
systems that build natively on ION layer
are like the SAS Services which means
they are infrastructured pieces and end
user applications will then concatenate
a bunch of these pieces to actually
build usable applications and we talking
about how do you take crypto to a
billion users one of the things you have
to think about is what what set of like
functionalities do they need and that's
that's where we think that IG layer will
play a role is the core functionality
layer and then applications will just
mix and match these different pieces to
then get the end us of functionality
that you want okay so that's a brief
overview of what the scope of the
project is and we're talking about to be
the coordination layer for open
Innovation this is really what we mean
many of these things we had no idea that
these could be done on I layer so these
are all emergent you know lots of people
here have actually come up with many of
these different things and it's it's
amazing for us to just sit and see that
once you allow this coordination layer
what all can then emerge out of
it okay
so um in the next couple of minutes what
I'll do is briefly touch upon what is
the fundamentals of the shad secur
system um when when people think about
reaking they're thinking about something
like hey I'm reusing the same e some
kind of Leverage or some other concept
and I just want to dispel some of these
myths here so what is the core
functionality of what is actually uh
what i l is actually doing the first
point is that Shad security is strictly
better what do I mean by that so let's
forget that we're reaking from ethereum
to ion layer let's just imagine that
inside I there's a certain amount of
each stake but it's supplied to all
these Services simultaneously right so
one way to think about it is let's say
you have $1 billion restak to 1,000
services this is One World another world
in which each service has $1 million
state which world is
better right to to attack anyone service
in the other world you just need one uh
1 million whereas to attack anyone
service B the the same pool is restak
across all these Services you need 1
billion Capital as an attacker to go and
attack any one service there is a
certain rigidity a certain hardening of
security when you pull security together
we see this all all through the place
right like this is why Nations
coordinate you know you don't have City
cities don't have armies Nations have
armies sometimes even like many nation
states coordinate to create alliances
that actually work together it's exactly
the same phenomenon Shad security is
strictly better
there is a little bit of downside in
that which is in if you had segregated
security you have something attributable
to yourself each service has that 1
million whereas in this you get a little
bit of mixing together of pooling which
is good but you know if you also wanted
attributable security what we're doing
in ier in in the upcoming version not in
the version that is already live and
launched uh but in the upcoming versions
we are working on a design where you can
also get attributable security what do I
mean by that you know if you have $1
billion stake there's potentially $1
billion to be slashed and some service
you know maybe there's a bridge which
says hey I'm very very security critical
you know if my service goes down or
something gets compromised I need at
least $100 million of insurance of the
slash uh portion so instead of taking
the slash portion right now what we do
is we just burn it like ethereum does in
our V2 what we'll do is we can actually
give you a portion of that slash funds
and the ability to buy this is called
insurance and you pre- buby it and now
you not only have the pooled security to
attack any one service you need to be
able to acquire the $1 billion of
capital but to if your service gets
attacked you you know how much you can
slash uniquely this this insurance is
not over provisioned so you it is always
guaranteed that you will be able to
slash that muchoney
so that's a superpower so you can both
get the benefits of pool security and
the benefit of attributable security you
can also start seeing that there are
economies of scale which is if you're if
you're using an application the
application is using several avss built
on ION layer then you can you don't have
to pay 5x if you're using five Services
then you don't have to buy insurance
separately for each of these five
Services you just buy insurance once on
igon lay so there is is an economy of
scale and then finally there is an
elastic scaling of security you know uh
Amazon's called ec2 elastic compute
right which is I don't know how much
compute I'm going to need I'm going to
go and buy it from a common pool and
there is randomness of how much compute
is needed by different people they go
and buy the portion of compute that they
want there is a similar phenomenon in
ier which is the elastic scaling of
security there is a large pool $1
billion or whatever amount totally
sitting as security
now whenever like a different Services
there are lots of different Services
each service needs a randomly varying
amount of security why because you know
I'm running an E2 USD bridge when
there's a E2 USD price volatility people
might want to use more of that there is
a BTC to Sol like Bridge or something
else also sitting on top of I layer then
you want different amounts of security
for each of these across time and by
having a single layer through which you
can buy sh security actually make makes
it much better okay
so um what I'm going to do from here is
just go through the
um let me just uh run this through I'm
not going to talk about all these things
um I want to basically go here talk
about our timeline of what we building
and when we're going to deploy it
um
so the um right so the earlier we had
divided the igen layer launch road map
into three different stages and stage
one was stakers stage two was going to
be operators and stage three was going
to be services and instead we've rivid
it it now you know in our current launch
plan in a different way stage one which
is already live is igen layer staking
like you can restake your e natively or
using liquid staking tokens stage two
instead of only launching ing for you
know operators what we're trying to do
is we're going to launch the entire
ecosystem IG layer you can have stakers
there's operators people can launch
Services Igan da or data availability
service all of them will go live except
the economic part payments and slashing
except the economic part everybody all
the different sites can come together
and start creating useful
Services um and in stage three we're
going to add payments and slashing so
that's our road map currently
and you know we are on the stage one is
already on the main net uh we will have
a stage two test net coming soon you
know definitely this quarter hopefully
much
earlier
um which will go on Main net next
quarter and then the stage three follows
that so that's the current launch road
map of uh Ian ler we're really excited
about all these different uh new things
that can be done across the different
sides of ecosystem stakers operators you
know um people building new avss rollups
consuming a DA lots of interesting
things happening there uh you'll hear
about some of them today um thank you so
much for listening to the first
talk
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