Skip to main content

ELIP Process

What’s an ELIP?​

EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) are the primary mechanisms for proposing new features and upgrades to the EigenLayer core contracts (See the eigenlayer-contracts repository for detailed list). 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:

  1. Track progress while designing, building, and implementing new features
  2. Publicly communicate new features and designs
  3. Create space for community input
  4. 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.

ELIP Process​

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 the EigenLayer Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) GitHub repository as a pull request.

The PR is tracked publicly on the repository using tags:

  • draft: proposal is in pre-production, ready for audit
  • testing: proposal is in testnet
  • final: proposal is ready to move to mainnet
  • approved: proposal has been approved by Protocol Council
  • merged: 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.

Proposing to the Protocol Council​

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.

Who can submit ELIPs?​

At this time, Eigen Labs is responsible for formally creating and submitting ELIPs in this early stage of the Protocol, 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.

Who manages the ELIP process?​

The ELIP repository and process is managed by the Eigen Foundation.