Overview
An Actively Validated Service, or AVS, is a system that leverages Ethereum's validator network to provide security and validation for its operations, usually in the context of restaking. AVSs are the demand side of the restaking economy popularized by EigenLayer: they rent economic security from staked ETH instead of building their own validator set. AVSs include bridges, oracles, sequencers, and data availability layers.
How It Works
Operators who restake commit staked ETH to the security of an AVS and run its software, such as relaying bridge messages or validating rollup state. If the operator misbehaves, the AVS's slashing rules can penalize the restaked capital, giving the service genuine economic security. In exchange, operators and their delegators earn AVS rewards, creating a market where security is bought and sold.
Why It Matters
AVSs allow new services to bootstrap trust from Ethereum's existing stake, which is why the restaking ecosystem grew rapidly after launch. They make the security budget reusable and create new revenue streams for stakers. Their systemic risk is shared security: if many AVSs rely on the same restaked capital, a coordinated failure or slashing event could propagate across the ecosystem.
Related Concepts
AVSs are the core concept of Restaking and are secured by EigenLayer-style protocols. They depend on Validators and Slashing mechanisms and are a key component of the Modular infrastructure landscape.