EigenLayer finds the word Intersubjective to replace "social consensus"

Author: ZHIXIONG PAN; Source: ChainFeeds Research

EigenLayer has just released the white paper for its protocol token EIGEN, introducing many novel and complex concepts, such as Intersubjective, Work Token, Token Forking, slashing-by-forking, and Intersubjective staking, which have quickly become the focus of community discussion.

The original intention of the EigenLayer protocol design was to generalize the use of Ethereum nodes, not only allowing these nodes to execute other business logic to increase revenue, but also to increase revenue for users participating in the ETH consensus. However, while increasing the utility of nodes, it also brings risks. Among these risks, in addition to the objective risks that can be directly observed, there are also some uncertain areas between the subjective and the objective. Although this uncertainty cannot be fully guaranteed by cryptography and mathematics, it is based on "social consensus". This is exactly what is called "Intersubjective", and I prefer to translate it as "social consensus".

From this, because it is a "social consensus", their protocol tokens also need to be forked, and if they can be forked, they need to design a dual-token isolation model, as well as the logic of initiating a fork challenge, etc. It is more like using Ethereum to implement a whole set of network logic. It has both (social) consensus and nodes, and can fork, but it is not a blockchain.

In addition, I also recalled some old anecdotes related to Work Token and Weak subjectivity as a supplement.

What is Work Token

Work Tokens have been discussed since around 2018, and the reason why more people know about them is because of Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital. In a nutshell, under the Work Token model, service providers can only obtain the right to perform work for the network by staking the network's native tokens.

That is, nodes need to provide both tokens and services in order to get rewards. Of course, with the popularity of on-chain liquidity and DeFi protocols in recent years, the tokens that nodes need to stake can be invested by third parties without the need for the nodes themselves to take out a large amount of assets. This has become the current model of EigenLayer: users provide ETH, Liquid Restaking Protocol provides liquidity, node operators provide hardware, and AVS provides business logic.

In 2018 or earlier, the industry had various classifications of tokens. The most common classifications at the time were: value storage (such as Bitcoin), security tokens, utility tokens, work tokens, etc.

For Work Token and other token models, it is recommended to start with this article from Multicoin: https://multicoin.capital/2018/02/13/new-models-utility-tokens/

What is Intersubjective?

First, let’s define two key terms: Objective and Subjective. Errors caused in blockchain and decentralized networks can be classified into the following four types according to their nature:

• Objective errors: These errors are based on data and cryptography and can be explicitly verified, such as the execution process of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

• Intersubjective errors: These errors involve social consensus among groups. When certain actions or judgments exceed this consensus, they are considered intersubjective errors.

• Unobservable Errors: This type of error is only known to the victim and cannot be observed by others.

• Subjective Errors: These errors are based entirely on personal experience and opinions, resulting in no consensus results.

EigenLayer believes that unobservable errors and subjective errors are difficult to correct, so it proposes to use ETH to avoid objective errors and EIGEN to avoid Intersubjective errors.

The concept of Intersubjective can be seen as a state between "objective" and "subjective". The word is composed of "Inter" (meaning "between" or "mutually", like Interactive's "interactive" and Internet's "internet") and Subjective (subjective). Therefore, Intersubjective refers to a subjective state formed between individuals, which is a consensus formed through interaction within society.

If you ask ChatGPT what Intersubjective means, it will tell you a difficult-to-understand Chinese translation: "mutual subjectivity".

For example, in the financial market, the statement "1 BTC = 1 USD" is generally not accepted. This wrong consensus can be classified as an Intersubjective error. Therefore, if we want to explain Intersubjective, we can understand it as "social consensus", that is, the common acceptance of certain ideas or facts within a group.

Although there is a subtle difference between "social consensus" and Intersubjective in academic and professional discussions - Intersubjective focuses more on describing the sharing process of subjective experience and knowledge between individuals, while "social consensus" focuses more on the results of joint decision-making and actions.

ETH objective, EIGEN subjective?

To briefly review the EigenLayer protocol, users can deposit ETH into the Liquid Restaking Protocol, and then these protocols will pledge the ETH to run Ethereum verification nodes. These verification nodes will also run various AVS and other middleware services (such as oracles, cross-chain bridges, data availability, etc.) to provide services for terminal applications.