Authenticity Verification Services (AVS) blend the scale of Web2 with the trust mechanisms of Web3, ushering in the next iteration of the internet. This article provides a brief overview of EigenLayer’s Authenticity Verification Services (AVS) ecosystem.
While blockchain is effective for settling transactions, attempting to shift all computations to smart contracts is challenging due to latency and throughput limitations. Even Rollup solutions cannot fully meet the comprehensive needs of front-end hosting, oracles, and databases.
Smart contracts need to interact with the account layer, and paying gas fees for each transaction is costly, so careful design is essential. For example, the latest v4 version of Uniswap employs a Hook mechanism, allowing externally deployed contracts to provide highly customized features for liquidity providers and users, such as limit orders, dynamic fee structures, custom oracles, and TWAMM (Time Weighted Average Market Maker).
The future of blockchain computation may involve a hybrid architecture, separating computation and storage into a transient layer and a persistent layer. Blockchain serves as a persistent layer with high security guarantees, maintaining shared state among multiple validators. Lower validator requirements ensure broad decentralization, minimize censorship, and protect critical data such as transaction logs and identities. AVS introduces a transient layer maintained by a decentralized operator network providing hardware like GPUs, ZK validators, and solid-state drives. This operator network offers specialized services including execution engines, virtual machines, oracles, and distributed key generation.
Web2 relies on centralized cloud service providers for storage and computation, resulting in lower security and susceptibility to censorship. Despite redundantly copying data in different locations, sensitive information like bank accounts still requires government custody.
In contrast, AVS services are supported by a subset of Ethereum operators who stake their cryptocurrency holdings to prove their honesty and reliability. Even if the state of the transient layer is compromised, user funds remain secure on the continuous blockchain layer.
The core promise of AVS is to provide Web3 trust guarantees for any computation, whether on-chain or off-chain. Its architecture supports verifiable cloud services and verifiable computation.
Firstly, verifiable cloud services are exemplified by Versatus’ “Allegra” cloud service AVS, offering dApps anti-censorship, transparent infrastructure at 50% lower costs compared to traditional cloud service providers. These applications are hosted on the AVS node network, eliminating single points of failure.
In the future, we may see a new class of applications, different from traditional DApps fully residing on the chain. Versatus labels these as “Unstoppable Apps” and introduces a new framework similar to the familiar HTTPS standard.
Applications like decentralized social media that require content recommendations are now possible. AVS achieves this by supporting advanced algorithms that continually update user feeds based on their history, creating dynamic experiences when accessing on-chain media NFTs.
Do we need “trust” for such services? Just as we expect quality from physical services, trust in every software computation is essential. Unlike tangible goods with visible quality, trust in software depends on intangible processes behind each function. Algorithms that impact our lives often lack transparency. For instance, the recent leakage of Google’s SEO algorithm clearly misled the public in webpage rankings.
What is the cost of this “trust”? As we are still in the early stages, it is challenging to calculate the additional costs of operating software with AVS. EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan estimated an additional 0.1% operating cost to achieve cryptographic economic security for financial transactions.
Besides “trust,” the second key advantage of AVS is “verifiable computation.”
The AVS node network can perform off-chain computations supported by cryptographic/ZK proofs (usable as application inputs), enabling interactions with experiments and AI agents.
For example, Uniswap v4’s Hook mechanism can combine with a decentralized matching engine hosted on dedicated AVS nodes. This operator pool efficiently matches thousands of trade requests with counterparties, creating batch trades settled on-chain.
AVS operators cannot steal user funds; they can only match transactions based on user-defined intent. This architecture allows operators to handle intent, integrate AI-driven outcomes, manage dark pools, and develop applications with variable fees, enhancing functionality.
AVS provides a neutral, accessible, and unstoppable network service. It offers developers a robust node network to handle any specialized computation on demand, simplifying the development process without starting from scratch. Currently, there are 1459 AVS operators and 16 AVS services, with EigenDA ranking first with 264 active operators.
The possibilities unlocked by AVS are vast, covering multiple areas. We categorize them into three major classes, including:
Verifiable Web2 infrastructure
Web3 infrastructure
Rollup services
Firstly, trustless Web2 services include content delivery, key management, and decentralized computation. For example, Witness chain utilizes the globally distributed AVS “watchtower” services to provide location proof by analyzing network latency. Mishti generates private keys from biometric technology through a set of distributed nodes, combining MPC and threshold signatures with AVS to offer smoother login measures and enhance privacy protection. AVS is also changing decentralized computation by providing innovative technologies for traders like off-chain matching engines. Cedro Finance is preparing to launch an AI agent layer allowing LPs to dynamically calculate prices of CEX and DEX for timely liquidity provision.
Secondly, Web3 infrastructure. AVS powers the fundamental principles on which blockchain and Rollup depend. By ensuring security at the DA layer, offering ZK-supported oracles, and deploying easily integrable monitoring systems, AVS strengthens the Web3 ecosystem.
For instance, in the decentralized validation processes of Lagrange and Brevis, queries are executed and verified on the off-chain AVS network before being re-integrated into contracts. Inspired by the Danksharding roadmap, the innovative DA solution EigenDA developed by AVS operators provides enterprise-grade solid-state drives for data storage, achieving storage speeds of up to 10 Mbps in testing, with the goal of reaching 1 Gbps with more operators joining.
Lastly, Rollup services protected by AVS include cross-chain bridges, interoperability solutions, fast settlement layers, shared sequencers, and re-staking Rollup. Currently, NEAR is developing a fast finality layer NFFL using AVS to prove cross L2 Rollup states.
In summary, AVS is a transformative cryptographic economic layer above blockchain, allowing developers to build trustless applications using any programming language.
