Re:Staking Weekly #22
The Verifiable Service Framework with Othentic, Brevis' Usual Money Integration, Mellow's EigenLayer Vaults, How to Build a DEX on EigenLayer, and Launching an AVS in Under 15 Minutes
Welcome to Issue #22 of Re:Staking Weekly! 👋
We're diving deep this week into the world of verifiable service frameworks with Othentic, arguably the most knowledgeable team launching AVSs in EigenLayer, with a 40+ deployment track record and accelerating growth. While most teams merely participate in restaking, Othentic lives in it. If you want to hear a battle-tested perspective on current and future restaking trends, watch the interview featured in this issue!
Also in this issue: Brevis' Usual Money integration, Mellow's EigenLayer vaults, how to build a DEX on EigenLayer, launching an AVS in under 15 minutes, and more.
Let’s get into it! 🚀
The Verifiable Service Framework with Othentic
Othentic is rapidly becoming the most indispensable name in EigenLayer's ecosystem, crafting a toolkit that's quietly revolutionizing how verifiable services (AVSs) are built and deployed.
In my deep dive with Raz Peleg and Yash Saraswat, we uncovered four compelling themes shaping the future of AVSs — each balancing on the fine line between innovation and operational reality.
1. First Steps into the Verifiable Framework Jungle
Launching an AVS often means grappling with the formidable task of crafting a reliable consensus or verification layer. Teams face the daunting puzzle of ensuring that decentralized execution by operators is accurate and verifiable — a notoriously complex task that can stall projects indefinitely.
Othentic didn’t merely observe this hurdle; they stumbled through it firsthand. What began as Yarden’s personal side project — a humble Oracle AVS — quickly revealed the painful reality of developing from scratch, even with EigenLayer’s starter templates. Amidst a daunting sea of choices and endless configurations, Yarden experienced firsthand how overwhelming the process could be.
This pivotal moment sparked Othentic’s singular pivot, driving the team toward developing a standardized yet flexible framework akin to popular web development tools like React or Next.js.
2.Balance, a.k.a. How to Not Kill Creativity
Here's the tension: AVSs could theoretically be anything — from DeFi bots juggling yields to face-recognition attestation systems. How do you abstract enough to simplify, but not so much that creativity is stifled?
Othentic resolves this by establishing clear definitions for two crucial roles: 'task performers' (operators who execute tasks or transactions) and 'attesters' (operators who verify execution results).
By structuring AVSs into distinct execution and validation services, Othentic creates a powerful division of labor: developers define "what" should happen, while Othentic handles "how" it happens. Under this architecture, developers gain the freedom to innovate across wildly diverse use cases, transforming potentially overwhelming complexity into something manageable, exciting, and ready to scale.
3. Escaping the Airdrop Trap
Crypto loves an airdrop — but Raz and Yash argue that for AVSs to survive beyond fleeting hype, they must pivot from speculative token incentives to genuine revenue streams.
This means finding real-world product-market fit, a goal echoed consistently in our discussions. Raz and Yash openly acknowledged the tension between speculative tokenomics and sustainable business practices, spotlighting the Redstone Oracle as a prime example of rapidly securing meaningful market traction.
The big gamble is clear: AVSs delivering tangible value and revenue will dramatically outperform those reliant on short-lived token incentives. It's the essential existential question facing crypto’s business model in miniature.
4. Slashing and Operator Economics — The Next Frontier
Raz and Yash emphasize that for AVSs to scale meaningfully, they must confront the formidable challenge of slashing head-on.
However, effective slashing isn’t solely within the project's control. Teams require rich operational data and existing slashing patterns to correctly design their slashing mechanisms.
Othentic is fully immersed in this challenge, pushing beyond basic penalty frameworks. They envision customizable slashing logic, nuanced reputation scoring, and dynamic rewards, all available from day one, accelerating AVS teams' ability to test and refine their slashing strategies.
Raz and Yash painted a vivid picture — slashing isn't merely technical; it’s the economic bedrock of EigenLayer’s AVSs. Missteps here erode trust instantly, while getting it right fosters a transparent, sustainable competitive landscape for operators.
Othentic's journey is a gripping narrative about striking balances — technical robustness versus ease of use, economic viability versus innovative freedom. As they push further into slashing mechanisms and economic guardrails, they're defining the next chapter of the verifiable services revolution. Rightly so, they continue to aggregate network effects that come after 40+ AVS deployments, with data and operational patterns nobody has seen in the restaking ecosystem.
Read More:
News Bites
Brevis, an EigenLayer AVS focused on zk computation, is now being integrated by Usual Money to help distribute its $30 million in annual revenue (official announcement from Usual Money here).
A strong March for Othentic: shipping five major features and onboarding over 20 clients into the Othentic and EigenLayer AVS ecosystem.
Mellow has officially integrated with EigenLayer, launching curated EigenLayer AVS vaults that optimize yield based on users’ risk appetite.
With verifiable services, you can build anything — like Ishaan’s decentralized exchange architecture imagined on the EigenLayer stack.
Watch the deep dive and Q&A with Nader and Nelson on EigenLayer’s upcoming slashing release.
With more options emerging across AVS frameworks, Nader demonstrates how you can build an AVS in under 15 minutes using Layer’s WASM-based stack. The proliferation of verifiable services is quickly becoming a reality.
A major milestone for the Bitcoin restaking ecosystem: Babylon is launching its token release and genesis staking event.
Watch DeFi Dad’s interview with Symbiotic CEO Misha, where he discusses verifiable services, bootstrapping networks with Tanssi, and more.
That's it for this week's newsletter! As always, feel free to send us a DM or comment directly below with your thoughts or questions.
If you want to catch up with the latest news in the restaking world, give our curated X list a follow!
See you next week and thanks for reading,