A16z led the investment with $70 million. Learn what EigenCloud is in one article

Congratulations to the EigenLayer team on the official launch of EigenCloud! In many ways, this is the holy grail of the perfect fusion of on-chain and off-chain computing paradigms. This article will specifically study its core essentials, let's take a look.

1Core problem: The encrypted world is verifiable but not fully programmable

The core capability of blockchain is to verify and ensure the correctness of calculations, but this capability only applies to on-chain information. Once off-chain data is involved, the trust model becomes invalid, and it is necessary to rely on oracles to upload extremely limited information to the chain. Although this model can support some applications such as stablecoins, DeFi, and NFTs, it will be stretched in complex scenarios that need to connect to the real world - these scenarios often require typical "Web2" development operations such as calling standard libraries and initiating API requests.

2Solution: Build a verifiable cloud to improve cryptographic programmability

EigenCloud allows developers to migrate rich application logic to verifiable off-chain containers, retaining only the most basic consensus enforcement logic on the chain, and leaving the front-end and other non-verifiable infrastructure in the existing public cloud. The token logic always resides on the chain, and the application logic is mainly transferred to the off-chain (while maintaining verifiability).

3、EigenCloudApplication Scenarios and Value Examples

TrustedAPICalls--API requests for isolated Web2 data can now directly trigger on-chain token logic. Users can prove any Web2 data features in their private login information, thereby breaking the Web2 data silos and achieving seamless migration of users to the blockchain.

AutonomousAIAgents--Relying on the native property rights of blockchain and the programmability of EigenCloud, fully on-chain AI agents no longer need human authorization to act: they can hold assets, enter into contracts, assume debts and even create DAOs.

Enterprise Compliance Assurance--Combining familiar cloud tools with blockchain-level audit trails, it provides enterprises with a low-friction path to verifiable compliance and settlement.

4, EigenVerify and EigenCompute will be launched in 2025 to support EigenCloud

EigenVerify ensures the correctness verification of the calculation process, and EigenCompute encapsulates the entire EigenLayer ecosystem into a developer-friendly toolkit.

5、Cooperative operation mechanism is gradually analyzed

Containerized deployment toEigenCompute:Developers create containers that hold application logic to extend the token logic of any blockchain. The container is then deployed to EigenCompute, which simplifies the matching process between suitable stakers and operating nodes.

EigenLayerEnsures computational security:Computations are performed by a set of EigenLayer-operated nodes and secured by a portion of the security capital allocated by stakers specifically for this application. The computational results are delivered to the target blockchain with a signed certificate. On-chain contracts can choose to call these results immediately with unique economic security, or wait for the challenge period to end for higher security (similar to optimistic rollups).

EigenDAEnables data availability:Computational data is recorded to the Data Availability Layer (DA), and any observing node can independently verify the computation process through EigenDA.

EigenVerifyChallenge verification:If a challenge is initiated, the original computation will be verified through the EigenVerify service - a service that re-executes the computation for verification purposes. If the initial node group is judged as a bad node, its staked assets will be slashed and distributed to the application party.

Token fork protectionEigenDA andEigenVerify: If the majority of EIGEN stakers protecting EigenDA or EigenVerify behave badly and pollute the process, the EIGEN token will trigger a fork. This will slash the staked assets of bad stakers and operating nodes, ensuring the integrity of the system without relying solely on the credibility of the majority committee. Anyone can initiate a fork by destroying a certain percentage of the native EIGEN tokens and receive a larger amount of forked EIGEN tokens as a reward, thus ensuring that there is sufficient incentive to trigger the fork.

Application/Chain fork to enhance security: Applications, services or chains built on EigenCloud can choose to pre-commit and fork synchronously with EIGEN tokens. This ensures that applications and service results always remain intact on the correct forked chain.

6Conclusion

It is important to emphasize that this is not a new concept. Many projects have tried different versions of similar solutions for their applications, but none of them have been popularized. The root cause is that users still need to have absolute trust in application developers. EigenCloud is the first attempt to provide this function as a service, and currently more than $12 billion in pledged capital provides security for the protocol.

Verifiable computing is needed more than ever: it will drive global assets onto the chain and provide users, regulators and partners with tamper-proof guarantees. Congratulations again to the EigenLayer team for releasing this achievement, and look forward to the mainnet launch!