Stader’s ETHx: Now live on mainnet

With ETHx, we pledge to keep Ethereum decentralized by building a liquid staking solution that is accessible, reliable and rewarding. You can learn more about how we intend to uphold this pledge here.

Our pledge for decentralization will be made possible only with the support of the community of stakers and node operators for whom we are building this solution.

Here’s a snapshot of why you should choose ETHx, how secure and reliable the solution is, and how to join the ETHx staking revolution.

🟣 Why should you choose ETHx?

For ETH stakers:

1. Launch incentives: Stader is offering 1.5x staking rewards during launch month (from July 10 to August 09) to users. This means that with ~5% base staking rewards, ETHx users will earn 6.5% in boosted staking rewards. Stake now to avail the ETHx boosted rewards.
2. DeFi rewards: To boost the utility of ETHx, Stader is earmarking $800K in incentives across DeFi protocols for Q1. The ETHx<>ETH LP will be live on Balancer, Curve and Uniswap, followed by additional DeFi protocols, such as Aave, Pendle, etc., down the line. As an early liquidity provider, you’ll enjoy a significant reward boost over and above your staking returns.
3. DAO offer: Community is a big part of why we do what we do. That’s why we’ve set aside exclusive rewards for members of DAOs and communities. We’re excited to start this initiative with our partner DAOs, Dewhales and Uniwhales, at launch. If you are a DAO or Community, get in touch to explore how we can keep Ethereum decentralized while letting members maximize rewards.

For Node Operators:

1. Boosted commission: ETHx node operators who join us in the launch month will earn 7% commission compared to the standard 5% (40% commission boost) on their first 4 active validators for the whole year
2. 1M $SD in rewards: We’re allocating up to 1M $SD tokens in rewards (subject to DAO governance voting) for Ethereum node operators to be accrued on their bonded SD.
3. Low-cost infra: We’ve collaborated with strategic node infrastructure partners to simplify ETHx node operations.

• Allnodes: A trusted staking partner that offers a user-friendly interface and pay-per-validator hosting mode. ETHx validators can now spin up a node for as low as $5 per month, with the flexibility to scale as needed.
• Avado: The leading plug-and-play staking solution for Ethereum. They make staking, node operations and yield farming more accessible while reducing technical and capital barriers. ETHx node operators will receive a $100 subsidy on Avado hardware for each new ETHx validator, allowing them the opportunity to get their entire Avado hardware for free.

🟣 How secure is ETHx?

ETHx smart contracts are triple-audited by leading blockchain security firms. These audits, conducted by industry-leading experts, thoroughly evaluate the protocol’s security and functionality.

Smart contract audits:

1. Sigma Prime
2. Halborn
3. Code4rena (Final report coming soon)

Other audits:

1. Stader node
2. Offchain
3. Oracles

You can always find the reports of our audits here.

Additionally, there are extra security measures in place:

• $1M Immunefi bug bounty: Attractive incentives offered to reward bug reports and vulnerability discoveries
• Forta on-chain monitoring: Real-time monitoring with Forta to detect threats and anomalies for ETHx will be live shortly after launch.

🟣 How to get started with ETHx?

As Ethereum stakers and node operators, these starter guides have everything you need to navigate your journey with ETHx.

1. ETHx users

• Guide to stake
• Guide to unstake
• Guide to withdraw
• As a part of ETHx Staking Academy, Stader will create a hub for resources, easy-access guides, videos, tutorials, and live sessions in the near future.

2. ETHx permissionless node operators

• Prerequisite
• Node registration and adding validators
• ETHx rewards for permissionless node operators
• Node monitoring
• Node Migration
• Validator exits and node termination
• Latest update
• The ETHx Node School will conduct live workshops and demos, community calls and provide multilingual guides for new node operators

🟣 ETHx governance | Initial State

The following three entities control operations and critical decisions associated with ETHx smart contracts.

A. The Community multisig

The Community multisig is a 6-of-9 that includes notable members of the Ethereum community. They act as guardians, maintaining an observant role over the ETHx protocol, with the capacity to unpause and upgrade contracts via a time lock set with a minimum delay of 7 days, a responsibility mainly employed during emergencies. The community multisig also can rotate the Manager and Operator addresses.

• Community multisig contract address: 0x45B977CeCB9Dfaa17dFcBa88826ef684b8489fF6
• Members include:

1. Mark Zeller: Active ETH community member. Member at Aave DAO
2. DefiDad: Active Web3 community member
3. Ignacio Iglesias Castreño: Co-founder at Stakely, blockchain network infrastructure provider
4. Edouard Lavidalle: Co-founder at Stakin, blockchain network infrastructure provider
5. Pratik Agarwal: Accel Partners, Global VC fund
6. Richard Galvin: CEO at Digital Asset Capital Management
7. Steven Shi: Investment Partner at Amber Group
8. Matt Batsinelas: Founder at Glass Markets
9. Amitej Gajjala: Member at Stader DAO

B. The Manager multisig

The Manager multisig is a 3-of-5 and is tasked with maintaining the protocol’s overall health. It can pause contracts in emergencies and adjust associated configuration parameters. All key decisions will be subject to DAO vote, with the manager multisig being responsible for subsequent execution. This multisig is expected to be used infrequently.

• Manager multisig contract address: 0xAAfb31780e4b9c95Bc920e388f4925A874cd07AF

C. The Operator

The Stader team controls the Operator role, and its primary responsibilities include overseeing the health of the ETHx node operator network, implementing node configuration changes and managing validator exits.

• Operator Address: 0x8F30DDC8dFb07055AFA02D44a8A4e25C0542737E

Together, these entities form a governance structure that oversees decision-making & operations in the ETHx ecosystem. Their collective efforts prioritize transparency, accountability, and a careful balance of oversight, control and flexibility. Our vision for the future involves transitioning towards complete on-chain governance, enabling SD and ETHx holders to actively propose and implement protocol changes. This evolution towards community governance offers an exceptional opportunity to foster decentralized decision-making, promote inclusivity, and cultivate an open ecosystem that embraces adaptability and continuous evolution.

ETHx product and architecture is a distilled version of rigorous analysis and experimentation by the Stader team with inputs from various community leaders, stakers and node operators. We have experimented with existing open source codebase of several protocols including Lido, Rocketpool, Frax, etc. during the design and development of ETHx and are thankful to all these protocols and to the broader open source Ethereum community.

To share our contribution, we have open sourced all our smart contracts and Stader node code. In the near future, we plan to make our oracles and off-chain open source as well, once we have ensured the stability of the systems at scale. We actively encourage the community to leverage our code and contribute to making Ethereum more accessible, decentralized and rewarding for all of us.

For any questions/thoughts, please contact us on Twitter, Discord or Telegram.

Let’s build ETHx together.