Introducing: EigenZero
The CryptoEconomic DVN Framework is now live in production through its first implementation — EigenZero, a DVN built with EigenCloud.
What Is EigenZero?
Backed by $5M in slashable ZRO, EigenZero lays the groundwork for cryptoeconomic trust guarantees to be embedded inside interoperability.
DVNs are entities chosen by applications to be responsible for verifying messages that cross blockchains within the LayerZero network. EigenCloud pioneered the concept of restaking, extending Ethereum’s economic security to new services through slashing-based accountability. EigenZero applies this principle to message verification.
EigenZero is a DVN ensuring that any incorrect verifications carry real financial consequences. If a message is verified incorrectly by EigenZero, affected parties can submit a claim through a slashing portal and receive compensation from the slashed stake of $5M in ZRO.
EigenZero is now live on three chains—Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Ethereum—enabling any LayerZero OApp or OFT to integrate it directly into their security stack. For more information, please see the EigenCloud blog or our Docs.
Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs:
“LayerZero was built to be future-proof at the verification level, allowing apps to configure security towards new innovations as they come to market. We are excited for EigenZero, which lays the groundwork for new trust guarantees around the verification of asset movement.”
“This collaboration marks a key turning point in solving the core challenge of interoperability security,” said Sreeram Kannan, Founder & CEO of Eigen Labs. “With EigenZero, message verification between blockchains has evolved from purely technical trust to economic trust. Through this slashing-based mechanism, developers and applications can now transparently assess verifiers onchain and quantify risk, raising the overall standard of trust for cross-chain services.”
How Slashing Works
EigenZero uses optimistic verification with a transparent slashing portal for dispute resolution. Anyone can submit a claim at any time, with each proposal requiring a 10wETH bond. If a claim about EigenZero’s misbehavior is valid, staked $ZRO is slashed, and affected users receive redistribution through EigenCloud up to the value they lost.
A five-member Security Council — operated by EigenCloud, Chaos Labs, Zellic, and others — will oversee slashing approval when a message is found to be demonstrably incorrect, malicious, or materially deviating from protocol behavior. For a transaction to be slashable, chain-level finality must be reached (e.g., 3 epochs on Ethereum). Network instability, forks, or L1 vulnerabilities are excluded from consideration. Only transactions that have economic impact are slashable.
All claims and resolutions are visible onchain.
Conclusion
EigenZero introduces financial accountability to verification for applications built with LayerZero.
By adding a slashable stake to the DVN, EigenZero creates a direct economic deterrent to incorrect or malicious behavior – an evolution beyond traditional trust, math, or quorum-based verification.
- Instructions for how to add EigenZero to an application's security stack are here.
- For more information on EigenZero, please refer to our documentation.
Looking ahead, the CryptoEconomic DVN Framework allows any team building on LayerZero to create similar models, using their own token to back new, cryptoeconomically secured DVNs.
