Restaking is a mechanism in which an asset already used to secure a Proof-of-Stake network is additionally used to secure other services, protocols, or infrastructure. The idea is to reuse existing economic collateral rather than requiring each additional system to build a completely independent stake base.

In a conventional PoS model, staked assets secure the primary blockchain. Under restaking, the same economic capital can take on additional obligations. Depending on the implementation, users may accept additional conditions and additional exposure to penalties.

Why restaking is used

A new protocol or service may require economic security without having a large native asset base of its own. Reusing existing PoS stake can allow it to obtain economic security from participants in an established staking ecosystem.

For users, the potential attraction is the ability to receive additional rewards on top of base staking returns. However, additional rewards correspond to additional obligations and risks; they should not be treated as risk-free incremental yield.

Additional risk

With restaking, the same capital can become subject to several systems simultaneously. Depending on the architecture, a failure to satisfy the rules of an additional service can have consequences for the user's position. The base staking conditions and every additional service therefore need to be evaluated separately.

Restaking can also use liquid staking tokens to represent the underlying staking position. In that case, the risks of the PoS network are combined with the risks of the derivative token and the restaking infrastructure.