I recently joined Marinade Finance, leading their institutional growth capability. When I mentioned about it to my mom, I had to explain what Marinade did - and what crypto staking was.
I had to go back to retail banking. A retail bank is healthier with more depositors and deposits, and the bank offers an interest on these deposits. It is a cringeworthy comparison if you are a native crypto person though.
To celebrate my new job, and to explain to my own friends and family, what I was doing there, I had to do this episode with Michael Repetny. Michael, Marinade's core contributor calls crypto staking as exercising your right in a democratic set up - on a blockchain.
Did you know that if you bought a longstanding crypto like Solana or Ethereum, you could stake it and earn returns in the tokens, while also making returns as the token appreciates in value (if it does)?
Michael and I get into the details of how Proof of stake works on Solana, what staking is, different variations of staking, its relevance to traditional financial services, ETFs, restaking and MEVs (towards the end).