Decentralized Networks: The Symbiotic Way

Symbiotic’s networks leverage Ethereum-grade security through restaking to build scalable blockchain ecosystems, and by enabling validators to secure multiple protocols with a single stake, they optimize capital efficiency without sacrificing security.

Let’s explore how Symbiotic’s approach can help projects achieve decentralization.

What Are Shared Security Networks?

In Symbiotic's model, shared security networks combine key elements like validation layers, data availability mechanisms, virtual machines (VMs), oracles, and cross-chain bridges into an adaptable framework.

At the core of this design is restaking, a process allowing validators to reuse staked ETH to secure Ethereum and other protocols. This boosts capital efficiency by ensuring that staked assets are maximized across multiple networks.

How Restaking Works

How Do Shared Security Networks Operate?

Decentralized networks like Ethereum and Bitcoin are self-sustaining ecosystems designed to operate without central authority. Symbiotic, however, focuses on shared security. This concept allows new networks to achieve robust security and sufficient decentralization more rapidly, without the need to bootstrap a whole network of validators.

By leveraging Ethereum’s PoS layer, Symbiotic enables emerging networks to inherit security from an established and secure system. This is achieved through restaking for capital efficiency and slashing to ensure accountability.

The importance of Restaking

In essence, restaking maximizes the utility of staked assets, increasing returns while improving network security. Validators can secure Ethereum, rollups, DeFi platforms, and other networks.

Shared Security Across Protocols

Symbiotic leverages economic security via any underlying asset to provide shared security, allowing multiple networks to benefit from its robust security without replication. Core participants are:

• Restakers: Validators who stake any asset to secure multiple protocols, maximizing capital efficiency.

• Operators: Entities running decentralized apps that define their own security while relying on assets through Symbiotic.

• Networks: Decentralized protocols that use assets for security, ensuring scalability and flexibility without duplicating it.

This model enables protocols to customize security while benefiting from Ethereum's foundational security layer.

Diagram with Symbiotic networks participants: Core Actors in Symbiotic Networks

Slashing for Accountability

To maintain network integrity and deter malicious behavior, Symbiotic employs a robust slashing mechanism. Validators who engage in improper behavior—such as double signing, remaining unresponsive, or approving invalid state transitions—face automatic penalties that reduce their staked assets. This approach disincentivizes malicious actions and reinforces the network's security and trustworthiness.

Improper validator behavior can take several forms, each with significant implications for the network:

• Double Signing (Equivocation): This occurs when a validator signs two different blocks at the same height in the same chain. Such actions can lead to forks, undermining network consensus and threatening blockchain integrity.

• Unresponsiveness: When a validator fails to produce blocks or fulfill assigned duties over time, it can degrade the network’s efficiency and performance, slowing down operations.

• Invalid State Transitions: Validators may also approve blocks containing invalid transactions or produce an incorrect state transition. This undermines the correctness of the blockchain, eroding trust in the system.

Symbiotic’s slashing mechanism targets these infractions to deter harmful behavior and preserve network functionality. However, ensuring fairness in the slashing process is equally critical. This is where Resolvers come into play.

Central to Symbiotic’s framework, Resolvers are specialized entities tasked with ensuring that slashing events are handled transparently, fairly, and without tampering. They play a pivotal role by balancing accountability with fairness:

1. Managing Slashing Events: Resolvers assess slashing requests to confirm their validity, serving as the first line of defense against unjust penalties.

2. Veto Power: With the authority to reject unfair slashing attempts, Resolvers prevent erroneous or malicious penalties from being enacted, safeguarding participants from undue losses.

3. Customizability and Decentralization: Recognizing the diverse needs of shared security networks, Symbiotic allows for a variety of resolver configurations. Networks can choose automated smart contract-based systems for clear-cut infractions or human-led decentralized committees for handling nuanced cases.

By integrating Resolvers into its modular framework, Symbiotic ensures that networks uphold their integrity while remaining flexible enough to adapt to unique requirements. Whether resolving disputes or mitigating risks, Resolvers exemplify the system’s commitment to both security and fairness.

Timeline: Slashing Events

Why Are Shared Security Networks Important?

Setting up and maintaining your validators is expensive and complex. This is a barrier for many projects that want to scale without committing significant resources to validator infrastructure.

With shared security networks, projects can focus on product development while relying on the shared security of Ethereum’s PoS system, making it much easier to scale with reduced overhead.

Symbiotic’s Growth

Symbiotic has already attracted more than $2.624 billion in total value locked (TVL) across various assets, with its’ largest pool being $1.5B in stETH due to caps that are imposed for each asset at the moment. This adaptive approach to security makes it possible to deploy shared security networks at scale without limiting choice.

Symbiotic Total Value Locked. Source: DeFi Llama

Tanssi + Symbiotic: A Match Made in ETHeaven

Symbiotic enables any network to leverage restaked security, while Tanssi simplifies the launch of shared security networks with just a few clicks. Together, we offer true decentralization and advanced infrastructure, empowering builders to focus on what matters most for their dapps—innovating—while relying on ETH-grade security and robust infrastructure.

How Tanssi accelerates the launch of Symbiotic networks

With Tanssi, developers gain access to out-of-the-box tooling, templates, and advanced customization options, making it easy to launch and manage Symbiotic networks efficiently.

• Shared Validator Pool and Incentivization Tools: Provides a decentralized pool of validators and automated operator incentivization, simplifying management and ensuring efficient operations without the need for independent onboarding.

• Integrated Developer Tooling: Offers Substrate SDKs for Rust and TypeScript, along with essential resources like explorers, RPC endpoints, and indexers to streamline customization and development workflows.

• Flexible Network Templates: Includes ready-to-use templates for EVM and Substrate-based networks, with options for quick deployment or advanced customization of governance, security models, and state transitions.

• Advanced Customization Capabilities: Enables developers to tailor infrastructure with unique governance frameworks, slashing rules, and consensus models to meet their project’s requirements.

• Seamless Interoperability: Facilitates cross-chain messaging and secure data sharing using Substrate’s framework, with built-in support for Ethereum-based bridges to enhance scalability and compatibility.

• Decentralized Transaction Processing: Provides decentralized and reliable transaction ordering to ensure efficient and secure network operations.

• Scalable Data Solutions: Ensures efficient data storage, retrieval, and availability to maintain network resilience and performance.

Building the Future of Decentralized Infrastructure

Symbiotic and Tanssi are reshaping decentralized infrastructure by combining shared Ethereum-backed security with streamlined deployment tools. As the next step in this collaboration, Symbiotic will support Tanssi’s Dancebox Testnet, allowing developers to explore the experience and test these capabilities firsthand. This integration is set to launch in early 2025, paving the way for the mainnet rollout later that year. Together, Symbiotic and Tanssi are empowering developers to build scalable, secure decentralized applications with reduced complexity.

Ready to build decentralized apps without the hassle? Visit Tanssi’s Dancebox Testnet and start building with no-code tools, Ethereum-grade security (coming soon), and seamless scalability today!