Questions around EigenLayer and Ethereum

Hi all,

Really struggling to get a clear answer from anyone for this:

My understanding is that once EigenLayer is live, you can do two things:

1. Restake using your LSDs
2. Allocate a validator towards the network

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1. Restaking LSDs

I have stETH. I allocate it towards a EigenLayer.

Q1): How can my stETH validate a network? LIDO does not have its own network, so stETH cannot be used as the necessary "collateral" (stake) to validate the network. This could only work if certain network validators allow the underlying staked asset to be the non-native token of the network, which I don't believe is the case.

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2. Allocating a validator towards the network

I spin up a new validator and set the withdrawal address towards EigenLayer. Under this scenario my ETH rewards from the consensus and execution layers are now being pointed towards this withdrawal address.

Q1) Are my funds now pooled at a smart contract wallet until 32 is hit, such that a new Validator on ETH can be created?

Q2) I have been told these rewards can be used to secure other networks. As per a previous query, ETH cannot be used to validate a non-ETH network. Eg you cannot use my rewards from ETH staking to validator a Polygon validator. So unless EigenLayer is doing some kind of swap for MATIC/POL then this is not possible

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Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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