NEAR Protocol x EigenLayer
Understanding the Super Fast Finality Layer
As the dust settles on the announcement of the amazing partnership between NEAR Protocol and EigenLayer, some questions have risen — chief among them: “What is NEAR Protocol’s Super Fast Finality Layer (SFFL), and how does it empower Ethereum rollups?” This article is the key to unlocking that door.
TL;DR:
- NEAR Protocol and EigenLayer, a layer built on top of Ethereum that introduces restaking, forge the world’s first “fast finality layer” for Ethereum Layer 2s.
- Ethereum Layer 2s transaction times slashed from minutes to 3–4 seconds, costs reduced by 4,000 times.
- Ethereum security retained, NEAR and EigenLayer guarantees introduced.
- Combining NEAR smart contracts, full nodes as actively validated services (AVS), and a dual-quorum DA layer, this partnership ensures security and finality.
- The collaboration aligns with the broader vision of Chain Abstraction to make the Open Web more usable.
The Genesis
NEAR Protocol revealed developments aligning with Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap at NEARCON’23. The receipt-centric design and sharding capabilities, where each account and smart contract is treated as a separate shard, make NEAR an ideal partner for Ethereum Layer 2s. It is a paradigm that views the transaction as a cross-contract call, aligning closely with the essence of cross-rollup calls. This sparked the partnership between NEAR Protocol and EigenLayer, with a goal to forge the world’s first “fast finality layer” for Ethereum Layer 2s.
The Super Fast Finality Layer (SFFL)
Central to this partnership is the creation of an SFFL addressing efficiency and cost concerns. To truly capture the meaning of the SFFL let’s break down its significance. Finality in blockchain refers to the irreversible confirmation of a block of transactions. Once a block achieves finality, it cannot be altered, providing security and certainty to the transaction. The SFFL is dedicated to accelerating settlement mechanisms. Settlement involves the confirmation and agreement on the state of transactions. By speeding up this process, the layer aims to reduce the time it takes for transactions to be considered final and secure, redefining the dynamics for Layer 2 projects on Ethereum.
This is what NEAR Protocol is trying to solve with actively validated services (AVS) to establish a fast-finality layer for rollups. The AVS ensures security by inheriting finality and security from NEAR and Ethereum via EigenLayer. The process involves rollups executing transactions, and claiming state changes to the fast-finality layer. This step, which takes 3–4 seconds on the SFFL, is in stark contrast to Ethereum’s 12-minute processing time. Once the changes are claimed, the system proceeds to achieve consensus among SFFL validators, and finally settle on Ethereum. Fraud-proof submission during the challenging period safeguards against incorrect claims, with EigenLayer validators on the AVS service facing penalties to ensure security.
Key Features
Efficiency Boost: Transaction times reduced from minutes to 3–4 seconds.
Cost Reduction: Transactions become 4,000 times cheaper.
Security Assurance: Retains EigenLayer’s security and introduces NEAR guarantee.
Decoding the Mechanism
NEAR Protocol uses smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms directly written into code. Smart contracts on NEAR enable DApps to operate with transparency and security. In this collaboration, NEAR full nodes serve as AVS on the EigenLayer. By incorporating NEAR full nodes into EigenLayer, the system gains the benefits of both NEAR’s smart contract capabilities and EigenLayer’s scalability features.
A dual-quorum DA (Data Availability) layer within the architecture involves decision-making through a dual-quorum system, attesting to the availability of data.
Combining NEAR smart contracts, NEAR full nodes as AVS on EigenLayer, and a dual-quorum DA layer, this partnership ensures security and finality, inheriting strengths from both NEAR and Ethereum.
The Open Web Vision
Beyond immediate benefits, the partnership contributes to the broader vision of Chain Abstraction for making the Open Web more usable, emphasizing a user-centric approach. This is crucial for the widespread adoption of decentralized technologies. Some of the experts shared their insights with the NEAR Foundation:
Sreeram Kannan, Founder of EigenLabs:
“We are thrilled to partner with the highly innovative team behind the NEAR Protocol. This is a mutually beneficial partnership that will leverage both NEAR and EigenLayer’s technologies to make it easier, faster, and cheaper for developers to build on Ethereum.”
Bowen Wang, Director of Protocol at Pagoda:
“Pagoda is proud to work with Eigen Labs, a world-class team, to co-build the fast finality layer. This solution improves the composability with Ethereum L2s and reduces liquidity fragmentation within the rollup ecosystem.”
Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol:
“The fast finality layer showcases the strengths of NEAR’s technology while making the Open Web more usable, which has always been the core goal for NEAR. It will also help defragment liquidity for Ethereum rollups and make all of Web3 more interoperable as a result.”
Altan Tutar, BD at NEAR Foundation:
“NEAR Super Fast Finality is one of the testaments of NEAR Protocol’s commitments to scale the Ethereum ecosystem. With this settlement layer, rollups could not only get fast finality for any cross roll-up transactions, but also would inherit EigenLayer and NEAR security before they settle down to Ethereum. We are excited we are becoming one of the activately validated services (AVS) built on EigenLayer.”
As we close this chapter on NEAR Protocol x EigenLayer, we open new frontiers for the Open Web. This collaboration stands as a testament to the collective power of visionary teams working together for a more accessible Open Web.
