In the rapidly evolving world of decentralization, shared security (or restaking) has emerged as a powerful mechanism to bootstrap decentralized protocols and services. With billions of dollars restaked across Shared Security Protocols demanding a return on their deposits, the critical question becomes: where does the yield come from? AVSs are the answer.
As shared security protocols grow in importance, the restaking ecosystem now faces a critical challenge: the need for more AVSs (Actively Validated Services) to sustain its growth and ensure long-term viability. How many AVSs are needed to satisfy the yield requirements on this huge pool of capital? Potentially thousands.
However, deploying and operating an AVS in the currently fragmented shared security ecosystem is technically challenging and there is no mechanism that aggregates supply and demand to enable price discovery for economic security.
Given these obstacles, how do we get to a future with thousands of AVSs? Catalysis.
At Catalysis, we believe we’re at a critical juncture in the restaking ecosystem, requiring innovation around AVS economics and developer experience to ensure a sustainable future for the entire shared security space.
Note: For the purpose of this blog, AVS refers to any decentralized off-chain compute system secured by shared security¹.
1. The Current State of the Restaking Ecosystem
The concept of restaking is becoming a cornerstone of decentralized security. As networks outsource security to shared protocols, it unlocks enormous value for both the security providers and the services utilizing that security. However, the current landscape is limited by the number of AVSs available, creating a bottleneck for the growth and sustainability of restaking protocols.
Right now, there are only a handful of AVSs that anchor this ecosystem. At the time of writing this blog, there are 19 AVSs on the Eigenlayer dashboard. Symbiotic has also announced its first cohort of 14 AVSs.
This is a start, but when we consider the scale required to secure an expansive shared security ecosystem and meet restakers’ demand for yield, it becomes clear that we will need hundreds — if not thousands — of AVSs in the near future. This growth is essential to maintain the sustainability of restaking yields that both operators and restakers depend on. Without enough AVSs, the ecosystem risks stagnation.
The good thing is, we think leveraging shared security protocols represents a compelling opportunity for most decentralized networks and could attract Web2 providers looking to offer enhanced trust assumptions on parts of the technical stack.
At Catalysis, our mission is to facilitate this growth by aggregating supply across restaking protocols, offering efficient price discovery and competition in an otherwise fragmented marketplace, and providing an unparalleled developer experience for AVSs and node operators alike.
2. The Urgent Need to Facilitate AVS Deployment
Consider the early days of Shopify: initially, only a small number of merchants (<50,000) were using the platform. However, as Shopify simplified the process of building and scaling an online store, the ecosystem grew exponentially. Today, millions of merchants use Shopify because it eliminated the friction that once made e-commerce difficult to access.
As Shopify’s founder, Tobi Lütke, puts it:
“The reason there were only 40,000 online stores was because it was hard, expensive, and everyone who tried ran into all these brick walls of complexity, which Shopify, one after another, smoothed over and made simple to do. What a lot of free-market thinkers don’t understand is that between the demand and eventual supply lies friction.”
Similarly, the restaking ecosystem is on the verge of its own “Shopify moment.” To meet the growing demand, we need a much larger number of AVSs to provide the scale necessary to support the economics (yield) on the billions of dollars in restaked assets.
Just as Shopify aggregated supply and demand for e-commerce, transforming the complex, time-consuming process of starting an online business into something accessible and straightforward, Catalysis aims to aggregate both sides of the shared security marketplace. By doing so, we will empower developers to deliver the next generation of decentralized services — thousands of them.
3. What is so special about AVSs?
AVS, or Actively Validated Service, is a term used to describe systems that require their own distributed validation mechanisms for verification. As explained by Eigenlayer, an AVS could be:
“Any system that requires its own distributed validation semantics for verification, such as sidechains, data availability layers, new virtual machines, keeper networks, oracle networks, bridges, threshold cryptography schemes, and trusted execution environments.”
What makes AVSs unique is their flexibility. They allow developers to write custom off-chain computation code that is secured by a decentralized network of node operators. This gives developers the freedom to experiment — not only with different execution environments, but also with custom consensus mechanisms tailored to their specific needs.
The flexibility of AVSs also extends beyond blockchain-specific use cases. It enables Web2 software products to decentralize certain product elements of their larger stack, adding enhanced trust assumptions that cannot be achieved in a centralized setting. The potential scope and market size of this application are enormous, and we believe this opportunity is currently not well understood by the market.
By leveraging shared security, AVS developers don’t need to bootstrap their own security infrastructure. Instead, they can tap into the security provided by larger existing decentralized networks. This unlocks the ability to build truly decentralized, permissionless systems with ease, making innovation faster and more accessible.
4. What Happens If There Aren’t Enough AVSs?
The risk is real. If the growth of AVSs stalls, the entire restaking ecosystem could face serious consequences. Without enough AVSs, restaking yields could plummet, making it less attractive for node operators and stakers. If stakers begin withdrawing their deposits, the supply of economic security shrinks, triggering a downward spiral where AVSs lack sufficient economic backing.
This could lead to a collapse in the shared security space, where the incentives no longer align, and the ecosystem becomes unsustainable.
The entire space needs to scale. A handful of AVSs simply can’t support the long-term viability of multiple restaking protocols.
The good news? Hundreds of AVSs are in development and expected to launch in the coming months. Restaking protocols within the Babylon ecosystem, like Satlayer & Pell Network, are also seeing strong interest. Experiments are underway at all levels to remove friction, and Catalysis is leading the charge.
5. Catalysis’ Vision: A Future of Thousands of AVSs
At Catalysis, we envision a future where thousands of AVSs are seamlessly operating across multiple shared security protocols. These AVSs will power critical infrastructure across decentralized AI (dAI), decentralized physical infrastructure networks (dePIN), zero-knowledge (ZK) applications, verifiable web2 SaaS and countless new use cases that crypto will unlock in the near future.
Our mission is to unlock this future by providing aggregation, abstraction and a unified developer experience to make the creation, operation, and scaling of AVSs frictionless. This is where we see the ecosystem heading, and we believe the growth of AVSs is critical to the broader adoption of decentralized technologies.
6. How Catalysis Enables This Future
Catalysis’ abstraction layer is the catalyst and driving force for this future. By simplifying the complexities of building and managing AVSs, we make it effortless for new AVSs to launch and scale across multiple restaking protocols. With the Catalysis SDK, developers can plug into any shared security platform without dealing with the nuances of each protocol’s underlying architecture.
Our goal is to guide AVS teams through the entire journey — from determining the economic security required and structuring rewards, to building AVS software ready for mainnet deployment.
This frictionless experience is what will enable the “Cambrian explosion” of AVSs, fueling the next wave of growth in decentralized services. The abstraction layer makes it possible for AVS teams to focus on building and innovating, rather than on the complexities of restaking. We empower AVS teams to focus on innovation, not infrastructure.
7. Why Should AVSs Choose Catalysis?
For AVS teams, Catalysis’ aggregation network offers unparalleled flexibility and efficiency. We allow for the creation of “partial AVSs” that can operate across multiple restaking platforms, enabling, for the first time, market-wide price discovery for economic security.
This approach — what we call a “multi-planetary” model of shared security — ensures that AVSs aren’t tied to a single protocol. Instead, they can leverage the best features of each platform, optimizing both their security and resiliency.
Catalysis also offers a flexible framework for developers, giving them the tools they need to experiment with different security configurations and find what works best for their needs. We provide the infrastructure; while AVS teams bring the innovation.
Benefits for AVSs:
- Dynamic Rebalancing: AVSs can dynamically rebalance economic security in real-time across multiple restaking platforms, ensuring optimal performance and cost-effectiveness.
- Native Rewards: AVSs can natively distribute rewards to restakers on any platform where economic security is sourced — eliminating the need for cross-chain transfers or bridging.
- Enhanced Buying Power: By aggregating demand across AVSs, Catalysis enhances buying power, fostering competition among restaking protocols. This leads to better pricing for AVSs.
- Unified Interface: AVS teams can access multiple pools of economic security through a single, unified interface, simplifying the complexity of managing multi-platform operations.
- Robust Security: AVSs built with Catalysis are more resilient against cascading slashings and the migration of restaked assets, offering stronger protection.
- Enhanced Developer Experience (DevEx): Our Catalyst-SDK streamlines the process of building universal, robust AVSs, saving time and reducing duplication of efforts.
8. Benefits for Node Operators
Catalysis offers substantial advantages for node operators by simplifying the management of AVS infrastructure across multiple restaking platforms. With the Catalyst-CLI tool, operators can seamlessly manage their AVS setups from a single interface, streamlining operations and reducing complexity. This unified solution eliminates the need to run separate infrastructure for each platform, instead offering a single node setup that saves both time and effort.
A key benefit of Catalysis is the significant reduction in DevOps engineering expenses. By providing a robust toolkit, Catalysis helps operators avoid building internal tooling for each new restaking platform. This not only minimizes development overhead but also ensures that node operators can scale their AVS management to handle thousands of services with minimal effort.
AVSs built using the Catalyst-SDK are highly reliable, eliminating common issues such as debugging obscure errors or handling key management problems. This robustness means operators can focus on maintaining secure and efficient infrastructure without the distraction of technical glitches.
Moreover, Catalysis empowers node operators of all sizes to participate in running AVS infrastructure, not just the larger ones. This inclusion contributes to the decentralization of the node operator set, addressing a growing problem in the restaking ecosystem.
Ultimately, Catalysis enables node operators to run a robust and scalable infrastructure, allowing them to focus on performance rather than operational burdens, making it a must-have for efficient AVS infrastructure management.
9. Benefits for Shared Security Protocols
Catalysis brings significant advantages to shared security protocols (SSPs) by aggregating demand and acting as a distribution channel, creating a more competitive and fair environment for these platforms. One of the key features Catalysis unlocks is leveling the playing field for restaking protocols, allowing them to compete on the strength and efficiency — in terms of both cost and performance — of their offerings. This also opens us opportunities for newer protocols to gain traction.
By simplifying the onboarding process for AVSs, Catalysis encourages more projects to deploy as AVSs, driving overall ecosystem growth. As more AVSs are attracted to these platforms, it creates a win-win situation where both AVS teams and SSPs benefit from increased participation.
In addition to driving adoption, Catalysis helps SSPs offer better features and more reliable economic security, making their platforms more appealing to AVSs seeking robust solutions. The influx of high-quality AVSs further enhances the robustness and value of these protocols, fostering a vibrant, competitive ecosystem for the future.
10. Why Now Is the Right Time
The timing couldn’t be better. With more than ten shared security protocols² now live and maturing, as well as liquid restaking protocols accumulating billions in deposits, the ecosystem is primed for rapid growth. These protocols are attracting ever-growing deposits from restakers, creating a dynamic that demands a corresponding increase in AVS deployments to support yield requirements.
For the first time, AVS teams are faced with an overwhelming array of choices and feature sets available across these restaking platforms, making it challenging to decide where to build.
However, the growth of the shared security ecosystem can only be sustained if we have enough AVSs to fuel it. Catalysis is here to meet that demand by providing the infrastructure necessary to drive the exponential growth of AVSs over the coming years.
11. Conclusion
The restaking ecosystem is at a pivotal moment. Without a significant increase in the number of AVSs, the long-term sustainability of shared security could be at risk. Catalysis exists to solve this challenge, providing the aggregation and abstraction layer that will enable thousands of AVSs to flourish.
By making it frictionless to build, operate, and scale AVSs, Catalysis is enabling a future where shared security becomes the backbone of a vast range of decentralized services. Now is the time to build, and Catalysis is the key to unlocking that future.
We’ll be launching our devnet in a few weeks — stay tuned!
12. References
- Alternative Nomenclature: Actively Validated Service (AVS — Eigenlayer), Network (Symbiotic), Distributed Secure Service (DSS — Karak), Node Consensus Network (NCN — Jito), Bitcoin Validated Service (BVS — Satlayer), Decentralized Validated Service (DVS — Pell).
- SSPs: Eigenlayer, Symbiotic, Karak, Nektar, Satlayer, Pell, Jito, Picasso, Solayer, Avail Fusion
- LRTs: Etherfi, Puffer, Renzo, Kelp, Swell, Bedrock, Level
