EigenDA, EigenLayer’s data availability protocol, has cut prices for its service by 10x and introduced a ‘free tier’, according to an Aug. 19 EigenLayer blog post. 

EigenDA is a “data availability layer” operating on EigenLayer’s Ether ( ETH ) restaking platform designed to reduce the costs of storing and accessing onchain data for Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling chains. The price cut comes as EigenDA is pushing to onboard more layer-2s to its platform, which launched in April.

EigenDA’s mission is to make “reliable, scalable, and secure data availability (‘DA’) abundant,” according to the blog post. “In pursuit of this goal, and enabled by the scalability of its design, EigenDA strives to be the most price-performant DA solution.”

EigenLayer’s EigenDA touts 10x cut in data prices image 0 EigenDA is secured by some 3.6 million restaked ETH. Source: EigenLayer

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Restaking involves taking Ether that has already been staked — posted as collateral with a validator in exchange for rewards — on the Ethereum network and using it to secure other protocols simultaneously. EigenLayer currently commands upward of $12 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.

EigenDA was the first “actively validated service” (AVS) launched on EigenLayer and also the largest. It is secured by some 3.6 million restaked ETH contributed by more than 133,000 stakers, according to EigenLayer’s website.

EigenLayer now hosts upwards of a dozen such services, including eOracle and Lagrange State Committees, both of which are secured by more than 2 million ETH — worth upward of $5 billion at current spot prices.

EigenDA says it aims to boost data availability on Ethereum by 1,000x and thereby enable onchain use cases, including completely onchain order books, real-time gaming, social networks, decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) and more, according to an April 9 blog post.

The data availability protocol is “integral to the long-term EigenLayer vision: in order to have the ability to penalize bad behavior, the protocol must have access to the data associated with related transactions,” the post said.

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