Automata: Building Multi-Prover AVS on EigenLayer
Multi-Prover AVS is now live on EigenLayer Mainnet! Starting today, stakers and operators can delegate/run Multi-Prover AVS with EigenLayer on Mainnet.
Automata is building cryptoeconomically-bonded TEE Coprocessors on EigenLayer, secured by machine trust and the latter’s restaking mechanism. We’re excited to be working with Linea and Scroll as our launch partners to build towards an era of open, verifiable and modular innovation on the blockchain.
Introducing TEE Coprocessors to EigenLayer
Automata Network’s TEE Coprocessor extends the functionality of the blockchain by performing secure computation in isolated enclaves known as Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). Multi-Prover AVS allows decentralized systems to interact with TEE Prover as a secondary proving mechanism to harden security, with robustness reinforced by TEE Committees.
Proof verification plays a crucial role in the security and efficiency of any rollup. Traditionally, most frameworks rely on a single prover, which leaves them vulnerable to bugs and single points of failure. Interacting with the Multi-Prover AVS on EigenLayer is inventive in a number of ways:
- Economic bonds protect against liveness risks with the ability to slash inactive or offline vendors. This is also known as liveness slashing.
- Likewise, the issue of ‘lazy’ validators is tackled by cryptoeconomic trust, with the correctness of execution guaranteed by the TEE.
- TEE Committees composed of heterogeneous vendors (such as Intel SGX, ARM TrustZone, and Amazon Nitro) raise the bar for malicious actors and increase security through redundancy.
- ‘Swift’ lane for optimistic on-chain attestation where claims are accepted optimistically with a bond that is forfeited if later invalidated. This allows quick provers to issue proofs for initial confirmation, followed by more secure, final confirmations from slower but secure provers. Removing key bottlenecks around verifier costs and congestion can be advantageous in use cases where rapid feedback is essential, such as payments.
Understanding Multi-Prover AVS
Here’s a closer look at the mechanics of the Multi-Prover AVS:
- Task Submission: Protocol builders participate in the AVS and submit multi-proving tasks. In a rollup scenario, this includes sampling and proving batched transactions submitted by the L2 to L1.
- Prover Registration: Independent operators register to take on these tasks. Operators leverage reproducible builds to run the TEE Prover, verified by Automata’s software build attestation to ensure the integrity of the build process.
- Execution and Attestation: Each operator (Prover) executes the task on their TEE platform of choice. An attestation is generated to validate the correctness and integrity of execution.
- On-chain Verification: Attestations are submitted to the blockchain, where the smart contract assumes the role of the attestor and conducts verification on-chain.
- Rewards Distribution: Rewards are distributed to the operators upon successful completion of the task.
We’re taking several important safety steps ahead of making TEE AVS online. Prior to opening up the operator set publicly, we’ll be working with an initial list of operators to ensure that TEE systems are built, deployed, and used safely, some of whom are already working with us on infrastructure providers in our current work with 1RPC. This monitoring period will also allow us to improve safeguards based on real-world use. To participate in the Multi-Prover AVS and become an Operator, fill up the intake form here.
We have and will continue to foster collaboration and open dialogue among the Web3 ecosystem to ensure we have the understanding and infrastructure needed for highly capable TEE systems on the blockchain. With EigenLayer, it’s a challenge we are eager to contribute to.
Automata Network is a modular attestation layer that extends machine trust to Ethereum with TEE Coprocessors. With Proof of Machinehood, a global, decentralized network of machine attestations helps rollups to achieve an Ethereum-aligned future without excessive computation or economic stake. TEE AVS on EigenLayer are secured by hardware root-of-trust and cryptoeconomic security.
