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Lido V3: Ushering in Institutional Staking Through stVaults - Hasu

Episode Summary

We were joined by Hasu, Strategy advisor to Lido, to discuss the evolution of liquid staking and Lido V3, at the dawn of Ethereum staking ETFs.

Episode Notes

Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake created a unique set of conditions (i.e. lack of protocol-level delegation, 32 ETH requirement, long exit queues, etc.) that led to Lido’s liquid staking model to gain huge traction, significantly eclipsing other LSD providers on native PoS chains. stETH added on-demand liquidity, bypassing withdrawal windows, while also increasing DeFi utilization and increasing yields. Moreover, by allowing users to stake any amount of ETH in pools, it removed the requirement for 32 ETH increments, ultimately improving decentralisation through long tail distribution of individual stakers. Lido V3 introduces modular stVaults which enable staking customization. This allows professional actors, such as institutional stakers, to have granular control over validators, MEV and other parameters, diversifying their investment strategies.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Hasu’s background
• Discovering Lido
• Liquid staking and the early days of Lido
• Why liquid staking gained traction on Ethereum
• The evolution of Lido
• Initial decentralisation concerns and the importance of dual governance
• Restaking
• Lido V3 and vaults
• Institutional staking & ETFs
• Ethereum’s ‘crisis’ and its values

Episode links:

• Hasu on X
• Lido on X

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
• Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.