The new token issuance paradigm proposed by Eigenlayer: infinite forking?

Author: Chain View

How to understand the new token paradigm of Intersubjective work proposed by @eigenlayer? Very interesting! In my opinion, $EIGEN is a new type of token between ERC20 circulation tokens and Staking functional tokens. It incorporates "social consensus" into the process of defining the legitimacy of tokens. In the future, tokens may be "infinitely forked" and always anchored by the "longest chain". Do you still find it abstract? Next, let me talk about my understanding: 1) From a conceptual point of view, @0x_Todd has done some specific popular science. Intersubjective is a fact between objective facts and subjective facts. For example: Objective facts: BTC is a public chain; Subjective facts: BTC, BCH, and BSV all say that they are the public chains that best represent the prospects of Bitcoin; Intersubjective facts: What you say is useless. It depends on which "longest chain" the "mass group" Miner is on; In the end, the BTC original chain won and became the irreplaceable Bitcoin in the minds of the public. In fact, as far as the BTC chain is concerned, various small "forks" are happening all the time. For example, different miners solve the proof of work problem almost at the same time and announce new blocks to the broadcast. Miners may continue to follow different blocks, which is equivalent to forking the chain. In the end, only the "longest chain" is legal, and the short-lived forked chain will be abandoned.

Intersubjective tokens are simply understood as tokens that have not yet determined their legal status. Any AVS node or even any individual can fork the Eigenlayer protocol, and the protocol that most people choose to support is ultimately legal. This means that tokens that choose the wrong team may be destroyed, and only EIGEN tokens that are always in the "longest chain" queue are legitimate.

This means that Eigenlayer must always ensure that the AVS nodes that receive user pledges will not have the risk of doing evil. In addition, the EIGEN token plays a more practical role to ensure its practicality, rather than speculation.

In short, a token that may be forked at any time, refreshed at any time, and may face redistribution or confiscation at any time can greatly promote the self-discipline and correct value orientation of token holders, and the goal is to ensure that the EIGEN token can always play its positive value to the Eigenlayer protocol.

3) Briefly describe the possibility of three typical forks of EIGEN tokens in the future:

1. Users want to delegate ETH pledge to different AVS nodes. There is a situation where Node A has received a large number of user votes and has an absolute monopoly in the total pledge amount. What should I do if it starts to violate the agreement?

Eigenlayer supports everyone to initiate voting with EIGEN tokens to re-fork an Eigenlayer protocol. Node A, which originally occupied most of the pledges, will be forced to withdraw ETH and other pledges, and its pledged EIGEN tokens will be destroyed. Other AVS nodes represented by B, C, D, etc. will become the new Eigenlayer protocol leaders to eliminate the risk of AVS having too much power and monopoly.

2. Most users do not participate in staking or voting governance after getting EIGEN tokens, but only take EIGEN tokens to the secondary market for speculation. As a result, one day, Eigenlayer found that only 20% of the tokens were staked in the protocol, while 80% of the tokens were speculated in the secondary market. What should I do?

Any Builder of Eigenlayer can initiate a vote to fork a new Eigenlayer protocol, and only EIGEN tokens that have been staked are legal. After the proposal is issued, the holders in the market can either choose to pledge the tokens to the new forked protocol or choose to continue to circulate. As a result, if the fork vote is successful, a large number of EIGEN tokens circulating in the market will become MeMe coins. Of course, the holders of circulating tokens can also continue to build the old Eigenlayer protocol, and it depends on whether they can outperform the new protocol. (Will the problem of tokens plummeting after staking be solved by this fork?

3. Users find that the Eigenlayer protocol team continues to do nothing, resulting in the protocol development not meeting expectations. AVS nodes and the majority of EIGEN holders can initiate a vote to fork the EIgenlayer protocol. If a large number of AVS and EIGEN holders choose the new protocol in the process, it is equivalent to the deprivation of the rights and interests of the original team, such as the potential future Token issuance and control rights, and even the investment rights of the original protocol investors, etc.

However, this possibility is small, because the Eigen voting weight held by the development team in the early stage must be the largest, unless the token is fully circulated and the turnover rate is very high.

Of course, there will be many possibilities for forking due to protocol bugs or inconsistent consensus on major protocol parameter adjustments, or even inconsistent future strategic development roadmap plans.

However, it should be noted that the mainstream tokens such as ETH pledged by users will be transferred with the decision of the "longest chain" agreement, and will not be subject to security threats. It is more about the EIGEN tokens themselves. If users stand on the wrong side during the fork proposal period, the delegated EIGEN tokens and the rewards generated by the pledge may not be protected.

Besides, the fork is not achieved overnight, so there is no need to panic and worry too much. Time is the greatest social consensus. Most Holders who hold EIGEN will inevitably consider maximizing their interests to get an optimal solution.

But in any case, holding EIGEN, Delegate EIGEN, and Staking EIGEN will become particularly important, because once a fork is successful, it will inevitably involve the shuffling and redistribution of a large number of chips.