DIN AVS Launches on EigenLayer: Bringing Economic Security to Web3's RPC Infrastructure

Today marks a milestone in the evolution of decentralized infrastructure: the Decentralized Infrastructure Network (DIN), built by the team behind Infura at Consensys, launches its Autonomous Verifiable Service (AVS) on EigenLayer mainnet. This represents the first large-scale RPC and API marketplace to run as an EigenLayer AVS, addressing one of web3's most critical vulnerabilities—the centralization of infrastructure—with cryptoeconomic security.

DIN's launch demonstrates how EigenLayer's restaking protocol transforms essential web3 services from trust-based systems into cryptoeconomically secured infrastructure. By extending Ethereum's security layer to RPC operations, DIN creates real accountability for infrastructure providers through economic incentives and slashing mechanisms.

The Infrastructure Centralization Problem

Despite web3's promise of decentralization, 70-80% of RPC traffic flows through a handful of centralized providers. This creates systemic risk: when a major provider experiences downtime, the impact cascades across wallets, dApps, bridges, and DeFi protocols, affecting millions of users simultaneously. The lack of economic accountability among RPC providers represents a fundamental gap in web3's infrastructure stack.

DIN tackles this challenge by creating a competitive, decentralized marketplace of RPC node providers validated through an open network of watchers—all secured by Ethereum restaking through EigenLayer.

How EigenLayer Enables Decentralized RPC at Scale

EigenLayer's AVS model provides the cryptoeconomic foundation that makes DIN possible. By allowing ETH and stETH restakers to back node operators serving RPC requests, EigenLayer creates real economic stakes for infrastructure reliability.

The architecture works through three key mechanisms:

1. Economic Security Through RestakingNode operators in the DIN network are backed by restaked ETH, transforming infrastructure provision from a reputation-based service to one with tangible economic guarantees. Restakers can allocate their stake to specific networks within DIN's Operator Set architecture, choosing which chains to secure based on their risk assessment and reward preferences.

2. Performance Verification Through WatchersIndependent watcher nodes continuously monitor RPC provider performance across availability, data correctness, and latency metrics. These watchers submit performance evidence to the DIN AVS, creating transparent, verifiable accountability for service quality. Watchers themselves must stake assets, ensuring they have economic incentives to perform honest testing.

3. Accountability Through Slashing EigenLayer's slashing mechanism is what transforms DIN from a decentralized network into a cryptoeconomically secured one. Node providers who fail to meet service level agreements face economic accountability, creating an enforcement model that ensures high reliability while maintaining sustainable participation for operators.

Production-Ready Infrastructure with Proven Scale

DIN is already serving production traffic at scale. Already integrated into MetaMask, Linea, and Infura, DIN routes more than 13 billion requests per month across 30+ networks, including Ethereum L1, 8 Layer 2s, and 20+ alternative Layer 1s.

The network's incentivized testnet demonstrated production readiness with compelling metrics:

• >99% success rate across all RPC operations
• Median latency under 250ms for request processing
• 7 billion+ monthly requests served during pilot phases
• Successful integration of permissionless operator onboarding

This scale validates both the technical architecture and the economic model, proving that cryptoeconomically secured infrastructure can match or exceed the performance of centralized alternatives.

Why This Matters for EigenLayer and Ethereum

DIN AVS represents a critical proof point for EigenLayer's thesis: that Ethereum's security can extend beyond the base layer to secure essential web3 infrastructure. By bringing restaking and slashing to RPC operations, DIN illustrates how the AVS model creates new categories of decentralized services that were previously impractical or impossible.

For the broader Ethereum ecosystem, DIN solves a fundamental problem: it removes the contradiction of building trustless applications while depending on trusted infrastructure. Developers can now access RPC services with the same cryptoeconomic guarantees that secure the underlying blockchains, completing web3's promise of end-to-end verifiability.

Learn More

To learn more about DIN and how to participate, visit din.build.

Developers interested in building verifiable infrastructure on Eigen can get started at docs.eigencloud.xyz.