Staking protocol developer EigenLabs announced the deployment of the testnet for the first stage of the EigenLayer protocol.
According to the announcement, “This marks an important milestone on the road toward the future of cryptoeconomic security, by creating a free market for decentralized trust.”
EigenLayer’s launch will be in three stages: “Stage 1: Stakers, Stage 2: Operators, and Stage 3: Services.”
The Stage 1 testnet allows different liquid staking tokens, including stETH and rETH, to be restaked on EigenLayer contracts. The assets that will be supported on the mainnet will be revealed beforehand and based on feedback from the community.
The Ethereum Goerli network provides the foundation for the Stage 1 testnet’s launch. It also introduces native restaking where new ETH stakers can set their withdrawal credentials to their own EigenLayer smart contract “pods” when creating new validators.
Existing native stakers can take part in EigenLayer after the next Shapella upgrade to Ethereum, which is slated for April 12, 2023.
Two alternative multi sigs are available for EigenLayer contracts. A team multisig that regulates the limited functionality, such as pausing and adding new restakable tokens, and a community multisig that regulates the upgradeability.
According to Sreeram Kannan, EigenLayer’s founder, enabling the transfer and re-staking of ETH onto other networks would reward validators and stakers with higher yields.
“Note that this is an early testnet, with code undergoing active development, and audits to be completed soon,” EigenLayer noted.
