Introduction

==What is ETH staking?==

Staking is the act of depositing 32 ETH to activate validator software. As a validator you’ll be responsible for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blocks to the blockchain. This will keep Ethereum secure for everyone and earn you new ETH in the process. This process, known as proof-of-stake, is being introduced by the Beacon Chain.

==Why stake your ETH?==

Earn rewards for helping the network reach consensus.

Enhance network security as the network gets stronger against attacks as more ETH is staked, as it then requires more ETH to control a majority of the network.

==How to stake your ETH?==

There are 4 ways you can stake your ETH:

• Solo staking (link),
• Staking as a service (link),
• Pooled staking (link),
• Centralized exchanges

Objectives

In this dashboard, we’ll deep dive into Pooled staking with Rocket Pool.

==What are staking pools?==

Staking pools are a collaborative approach to allow many with smaller amounts of ETH to obtain the 32 ETH required to activate a set of validator keys. Pooling functionality is not natively supported within the protocol, so solutions were built out separately to address this need.

Some pools operate using smart contracts, where funds can be deposited to a contract, which trustlessly manages and tracks your stake, and issues you a token that represents this value. Other pools may not involve smart contracts and are instead mediated off-chain.

==Why stake with a pool?==

Low barrier to entry

• Not a whale? No problem. Most staking pools let you stake virtually any amount of ETH by joining forces with other stakers, unlike staking solo which requires 32 ETH.

Stake today

• Staking with a pool is as easy as a token swap. No need to worry about hardware setup and node maintenance. Pools allow you to deposit your ETH which enables node operators to run validators. Rewards are then distributed to contributors minus a fee for node operations.

Liquidity tokens

• Many staking pools provide a token that represents a claim on your staked ETH and the rewards it generates. This allows you to make use of your staked ETH, e.g. as collateral in DeFi applications. → ==this is why Pooled staking is also called liquid staking platforms.==

Below is the simplified ETH liquidity staking flow I visualize so that we can better understand the process.

Rocket Pool

What is Rocket Pool?

Rocket Pool is a liquid staking platform which provides the Pooled staking service.

How Rocket Pool Works?

Unlike solo stakers, who are required to put 32 ETH up for deposit to create a new validator, Rocket Pool nodes only need to deposit 16 ETH per validator. This will be coupled with 16 ETH from the staking pool (which stakers deposited in exchange for rETH) to create a new ETH2 validator. This new validator is called a minipool.

The rETH Token

As a Rocket Pool staker, your role is to deposit ETH into the deposit pool which will enable a node operator to create a new Beacon Chain validator. You can stake as little as 0.01 ETH.

In doing so, you will be given a token called rETH. rETH represents both how much ETH you deposited, and when you deposited it.

More detail in this link.

Approach

With the liquidity staking flow above, the next step is identifying Rocket Pool’s contract address which ETH depositor interact with to deposit their ETH.

Below are 2 contract addresses of Rocket Pool

I also compare Rocket Pool with other liquid staking platforms listed in this dashboard.

Structure

• How much ETH was staked? 
• How many unique depositors are there? 
• What is the avg/median/max/min/distribution of ETH deposits?
• Key Higlights
• Conclusion

How much ETH was staked?

Charts in this section (in order from left to right, top to bottom)

==Highlights==

• ==Total liquid staking ETH of Rocket Pool is 124.1K ETH, accounts for 3.8% in total liquid staking ETH. The first deposit happened on Oct 4, 2021.==
• Recently, because of the Redstone upgrade (link), the pooled staking address of Rocket Pool has been changed from V1 to V2. Thus total ETH deposited to the V1 contract stopped at 123.3K ETH on Aug 28, 2022. Until Sep 6, 2022, total ETH deposited to the V2 contract is 740.6 ETH.
• ==Rocket Pool’s total unique depositor surpassed Stakewise’s on Jan 18, 2022 to become the 2nd largest liquid staking platform in term of total liquid staking ETH. Though the gap between Rocket Pool and Lido is still very big.==
• Since Oct 2021, the daily growth rate of total ETH deposited to Rocket Pool is much higher than that of Other platforms (ex. Lido).
• And ==since May 2022, the daily growth rate of total ETH deposited to Rocket Pool has surpassed Lido’s daily growth rate. Also Rocket Pool started to challenge the no.1 position of Lido in term of total daily ETH deposited.==
• ==Last 3 months, majority of daily ETH deposited to Rocket Pool is from new depositors.==

How many unique depositors are there?

Charts in this section (in order from left to right, top to bottom)

==Highlights==

• ==Total unique depositor of Rocket Pool is 8.55K depositors.==
• Rocket Pool’s total unique depositor surpassed Stakewise’s on Aug 14, 2022 to become the 2nd largest liquid staking platform in term of total unique depositors. Though the gap between Rocket Pool and Lido is still very big.
• ==Since Aug 24, 2022, Rocket Pool’s total unique depositor sky rocketed and almost doubled in just 2 weeks.== This might be the result of recent increase in Rocket Pool’s marketing spending with Bankless sponsor (link).

What is the avg/median/max/min/distribution of ETH deposits?

Charts in this section (in order from left to right, top to bottom)

==Highlights==

• ==ETH deposited to Rocket Pool per deposit ranges from 0.01 ETH to 1990 ETH, with median at 0.21 ETH, and average at 11.1 ETH.==
• Use these numbers (rounded) as either bucket’s lower bound or bucket’s upper bound, we get the most common bucket of ETH deposited is 0.1 - 0.2, following by 1 - 10, >= 10, 0.2 - 1, and 0.01 - 0.1
• On average, Rocket Pool’s ETH deposited per deposit is lower than most except form Stakewise, Ankr, Blockdaemon, Swellnetwork, and PStake.

Key Highlights

• Total liquid staking ETH of Rocket Pool is 124.1K ETH, accounts for 3.8% in total liquid staking ETH. The first deposit happened on Oct 4, 2021.

• Rocket Pool’s total unique depositor surpassed Stakewise’s on Jan 18, 2022 to become the 2nd largest liquid staking platform in term of total liquid staking ETH. Though the gap between Rocket Pool and Lido is still very big.

• Since May 2022, the daily growth rate of total ETH deposited to Rocket Pool has surpassed Lido’s daily growth rate. Also Rocket Pool started to challenge the no.1 position of Lido in term of total daily ETH deposited.

• Last 3 months, majority of daily ETH deposited to Rocket Pool is from new depositors.

• Total unique depositor of Rocket Pool is 8.55K depositors.

• Since Aug 24, 2022, Rocket Pool’s total unique depositor sky rocketed and almost doubled in just 2 weeks.

• ETH deposited to Rocket Pool per deposit ranges from 0.01 ETH to 1990 ETH, with median at 0.21 ETH, and average at 11.1 ETH.

Conclusion

Rocket Pool has been grown very fast to become the second largest liquid staking platform both interm of total ETH deposited and total depositor. Though there is still a big gap with the leader Lido in term of total metrics. However, Rocket Pool is catching up on daily ETH deposited and has surpassed Lido in daily growth rate of ETH deposited and new depositor.

Thanks for reading!