Shared Security
A model where a new network or service borrows an established network's existing economic security, rather than bootstrapping its own validator set from scratch.
Shared security is a model where a new network or service borrows an established network's existing economic security — generally by letting validators who are already staking (or restaking, see Kaavon's "Restaking" glossary definition) on the established network also help secure the new one — rather than needing to bootstrap an entirely new, independent validator set and its own economic security from scratch.
This can let a new service launch with meaningfully stronger security sooner than building independent security would allow, at the cost of a new, compounded form of risk: a fault in the new service can potentially affect validators' stake on the established network they're also borrowing security from.
Examples
- Shared security lets a new service launch with borrowed economic security from an established network, rather than needing years to bootstrap its own from scratch.
- Shared security introduces a compounded risk: a fault in the new service can potentially put validators' stake on the established network at risk too.