Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum? - Ep. 372
Unchained
Exploring the Post-Merge Power Dynamics of Lido in Ethereum Staking
This chapter explores how the Ethereum merge affects Lido's position in the staking ecosystem, highlighting the anticipated rise in ETH staking and its impact on validator queues. It also discusses governance proposals aimed at decentralizing Lido’s control, including a dual governance mechanism for better power balance.
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Ryan Berckmans, Ethereum investor and community member, and Alexandre Bergeron, Bitcoin investor, discuss Lido’s dominance as a liquid staking provider, whether that issue can be resolved, and how it could be a centralizing force for Ethereum. Show highlights:
- what stETH is, what the uses cases are for stETH, and why it is important
- how Lido had a first-mover advantage and how that kicked off network effects
- whether the liquid staking derivatives system is one of a “winner-take-all”
- how much of the staked ETH will be turned into a liquid staking derivative
- how Lido might have a huge MEV opportunity after the Merge
- what the proposer-builder separation is
- whether Lido's dominance will increase over time
- whether other competitors have been competitive with Lido
- why Lido is a natural monopoly because of the incentives and MEV opportunities
- what the implication of Lido’s monopoly is for Ethereum’s censorship resistance
- whether Lido is effectively a single entity despite having multiple node operators
- whether there could be a long waiting period for becoming a validator after the Merge
- how Lido is moving its staking derivatives to other chains
- how Lido’s new dual-governance proposal works, why it might be useful to decentralize Lido and whether it reduces the power of LDO token holders
- how Lido’s centralization is the biggest threat to Ethereum in the long term and what are the possible solutions
- why Ryan believes the value of ETH comes from its credible neutrality and whether Lido's centralization may jeopardize that
- whether finding solutions around MEV opportunities is a good way to reduce Lido’s monopoly
- whether Lido’s competitors could form an alliance and build a tokenized basket of their staking derivatives to compete with Lido
- whether Lido could airdrop the LDO token to all ETH holders to decentralize its governance token
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Ava Labs: https://www.avax.network/
Alex:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bergealex4
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans
stETH
- Lido’s explanation of what stETH is: https://twitter.com/LidoFinance/status/1535184472546889735?s=20&t=oQeB1uj7HG7Y4he-0gbcLg
- Previous Unchained Coverage: In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?: https://unchainedpodcast.com/in-the-recent-crypto-market-meltdown-what-role-did-lidos-steth-play-ep-370/
Lido’s Centralization:
- Alex’s thread on why ETH is broken: https://twitter.com/bergealex4/status/1410761639226318852?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
- Ryan on a liquid staking monopoly: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans/status/1521179049548300291?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
- Ryan’s proposed solutions: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans/status/1531731955011579904?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
- Is Lido making Ethereum less decentralized?: https://cryptobriefing.com/is-lido-making-ethereum-less-decentralized/
- LDO token analysis: https://medium.com/general_knowledge/lido-finance-liquid-ethereum-staking-ldo-potential-f5dc3553b8d2
- Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan’s take: https://twitter.com/dannyryan/status/1524044527828303872?s=20&t=H4UNoLn7sKQyZx5ll3-Ncw
- Ryan’s take on Lido’s self-limit: https://research.lido.fi/t/should-lido-on-ethereum-be-limited-to-some-fixed-of-stake/2225/9?u=ryanberckmans
Lido’s Governance Proposals
- Lido + stETH dual governance: https://research.lido.fi/t/ldo-steth-dual-governance/2382
- Hasu on Lido’s dual governance proposal: https://twitter.com/hasufl/status/1540652075352313857?s=20&t=sJU5C5xo5litEJrZZDaWNQ
- Lido’s two-phase voting scheme: https://blog.lido.fi/moving-to-two-phase-voting/
MEV
- Ryan on post-merge MEV: https://twitter.com/ryanberckmans/status/1453597003397611526?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
- Alex on proposer-builder separation: https://twitter.com/bergealex4/status/1540934540901744640?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
- Haseeb on post-merge MEV: https://twitter.com/hosseeb/status/1464003851942391834?s=20&t=JLyNokP7Kxj7tIiDzHIHTQ
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