What is restaking? Extra duties for staked collateral

Restaking commits collateral to the security of additional services, exposing it to new duties and possible losses. Rewards may supplement ordinary staking income, while the same capital takes on additional obligations.

Ethereum’s explanation distinguishes securing extra services from lending a staking token. Not every activity earning yield on an LST is restaking.

Example: collateral allocated to another duty

Suppose 2 ETH-equivalent from a hypothetical 10 ETH position is exposed to a service’s penalty rules. A 5% cut to that allocation would be 0.1 ETH. The allocation, total balance and actual penalty are different measures. The figures are explanatory assumptions, not a current product offer.

A depositor may delegate service operations instead of running the software. The operator’s duties and penalty authority matter alongside the reward rate. Extra-service penalties do not have to follow Ethereum’s own validator rules.

Staking concerns the base network’s duties; restaking adds security commitments. Key loss, contract vulnerabilities and withdrawal delays remain separate parts of the assessment.