Is the newly formed Protocol Council the key to strengthening EigenLayer’s protocol security and supporting community-driven growth?

On Jan. 14, EigenLayer (EIGEN) announced the formation of the Protocol Council to ensure protocol security and evaluate EigenLayer Improvement Proposals. The news was shared via a tweet from the Eigen Foundation.

EIGEN is a protocol built on Ethereum (ETH) that introduces restaking, a feature allowing already staked ETH (ETH locked up to secure the network) to also secure various other applications.

In simpler terms, if you have ETH staked to help protect the Ethereum network, you can use that same staked ETH to provide security for decentralized services like sequencers (which help order transactions), oracles (which supply real-world data to the blockchain), and data availability layers (which ensure data is accessible and verifiable), opening up new possibilities across decentralized applications.

The newly formed Protocol Council will be instrumental in directing and overseeing the introduction of the above-mentioned features, ensuring that all improvements are well-vetted and support the protocol’s long-term objectives, fostering broader ecosystem development and empowering community-driven contributions.

In addition to the formation of the council, EIGEN has launched the Eigen Council Telegram group, offering the community an opportunity to actively participate in governance, vote on proposals, and submit ideas. Active voters will receive EIGEN tokens as rewards, making the process more engaging.

EigenLayer also supports restaking with any ERC-20 token, a feature introduced in August 2024 with the launch of permissionless token support on its mainnet, allowing stakers to use various ERC-20 tokens, including AVS tokens, stablecoins, and Bitcoin(BTC) denominated assets, to secure additional networks and earn rewards.

Furthermore, EigenDA, a service on EigenLayer providing low-cost data availability for rollups, supports custom quorums secured by restaked ERC-20 tokens, offering additional flexibility for rollup-specific security needs.

With a 24-hour trading volume of over $137.35 million, the EIGEN token is trading at about $2.98 as of Jan. 14. There are over 210.8 million EIGEN tokens in circulation, and the token’s market cap is $630 million, at the time of writing.