This repository tracks EigenLayer Improvement Proposals. These are discrete units of protocol governance outlining improvements to EigenLayer core contracts.
EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) are the primary mechanisms for proposing new features and upgrades to the EigenLayer core contracts. ELIPs are version-controlled design documents that detail the motivation, technical specification, rationale, implementation path, and impact evaluation of specific proposals impacting core contracts. ELIPs are used to:
- Track progress while designing, building, and implementing new features
- Publicly communicate new features, designs, and create space for community input
- Propose new upgrades for approval & execution
The following are examples of actions that require an ELIP:
- Upgrades/modifications to EigenLayer core contracts
- Modifications to multisig governance architecture (i.e. transferring ownership / admin access)
- Modifying minting rights over the bEIGEN token
Once proposals have passed through the ELIP process, they are submitted to the Protocol Council for final approval and execution. The Protocol Council will execute all EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) that have been approved.
In the early stages, ideas for ELIPs and early drafts are discussed in the “ELIP” category on forum.eigenlayer.xyz. After the design and scope of an ELIP has been finalized, it is submitted to this repository as a pull request. To submit an ELIP, open a pull request. Ongoing and accepted proposals can be found in /elips.
The PR is tracked publicly on the repository using tags:
draft: proposal is in pre-production, ready for audittesting: proposal is in testnetfinal: proposal is ready to move to mainnetapproved: proposal has been approved by Protocol Councilmerged: proposal has gone live on mainnet
The same tags are used to track the state of the ELIP in the Technical Proposals category on forum.eigenlayer.xyz.
Once a proposal has successfully reached the final stage and is ready to move to mainnet, the forum post title is updated to [FINAL], signaling the start of the Protocol Council’s final review process. The Chair convenes the Protocol Council to review the improvement proposal and ensure it meets security expectations.
After evaluating the ELIP, the Protocol Council formally communicates its decision by responding to the corresponding forum post. Coordinated by the Council Chair, this response is expected to include a detailed evaluation of the proposal and overview of the Council’s decision-making process. If the Council approves the ELIP, the forum post and PR can be updated to approved. If the Council denies the ELIP, it is reverted to the testing stage for further iteration if applicable or rejected entirely.
Once the report is published, the proposer queues the proposal on-chain in the timelock, and publishes a Transparency Report detailing relevant information regarding the upcoming changes and outlining execution details (e.g. Foundry scripts). After the report is published, the Protocol Council executes the queued operations in the timelock. Once the proposal is live on mainnet, the forum post is updated to merged and the PR can be merged on GitHub. In the event that the proposer does not have adequate on-chain permissions to queue the proposal itself, the Protocol Council queues the necessary operations in addition to executing them. Once the proposal is live on mainnet, the forum post is updated to merged and the corresponding PR is merged on GitHub.
In this early stage, Eigen Foundation and Eigen Labs are the only entities that can accept proposals for improvements to the EigenLayer core contracts however, anyone can suggest improvements and start discussions on forum.eigenlayer.xyz. Suggestions are reviewed, prioritized, and incorporated into ELIPs according to available resources.
The Protocol Council will have the sole power to execute/approve proposed improvements to the EigenLayer core contracts. To provide a check on the Protocol Council’s unilateral ability to execute upgrades, the Eigen Labs multisig (Operations Multisig holds the role of canceler on the timelock and can cancel the approved proposals of the Protocol Council. The power to propose/veto transactions in the timelock will be further decentralized in the future.
The Eigen Foundation maintains the ELIP repository and process.