Eigen Labs CEO says ‘critical milestone’ slashes scalability trade-off

Eigenlayer took a step toward scaling decentralized infrastructure by rolling out a multichain verification feature that allows decentralized services to run on layer-2 networks while retaining Ethereum-grade security. 

On Thursday, Eigenlayer  introduced  a protocol feature that lets Actively Validated Services (AVS) run on layer 2s, in addition to the Ethereum network. Eigen Labs launched the new feature on the Sepolia Testnet on the Base network.  

Eigen Labs founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan told Cointelegraph the update marked a “critical milestone” in the company’s roadmap. He said that while the feature is launching on Base Sepolia, they plan to roll it out to additional blockchains soon. 

“Base stood out as our first partner because of its vibrant builder ecosystem and alignment with our mission to accelerate the app layer,” he said, adding that they are working to support additional chains and plan to bring the feature to mainnet environments in the third quarter of 2025. 

Eigen Labs CEO explains multichain vision for decentralized services

Kannan told Cointelegraph that the feature allows EigenCloud to fulfill its mission of scaling verifiable infrastructure everywhere. He said this requires AVS to meet developers across many chains, not just the Ethereum mainnet. 

“Until now, AVS had to choose between leveraging Ethereum’s security or scaling to faster, cheaper environments,” Kannan said. “With Multi-Chain Verification, they don’t have to make a choice.”

The system ensures that AVSs deployed on other blockchains inherit EigenLayer’s pooled security. Validator data, such as stake weights, operator configurations and slashing penalties, is automatically synced across all supported chains.

Slashing refers to  penalizing validators  who act maliciously or misbehave, while stake weights refer to how much crypto a validator has staked. 

Blockchain networks push infrastructure upgrades

Eigenlayer’s new upgrade comes as networks move to enhance technical capabilities.

On Thursday, hybrid blockchain Build on Bitcoin  rolled out a technical upgrade  that brought it closer to getting a fully decentralized mark on the L2Beat platform. The network implemented zero-knowledge (ZK) fraud proofs within an optimistic rollup framework. 

Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation set a timeline for  implementing zkEVM in the mainnet  within one year. On July 10, the foundation laid a path toward replacing traditional block execution with ZK-proofs.