Rocket Pool is live on mainnet! Slowly rolling out its staking pools, Rocket Pool is opening up its decentralized ETH staking product to the world. Core team members Darren Langley and Dave Rugendyke join to talk about the past, present, and future of the protocol. Rocket Pool allows ETH holders to stake without needing to run a full node, which requires hardware, maintenance, and 32 ETH. Abstracting away those requirements helps to decentralize Ethereum's Proof-of-Stake, which is expected to arrive with the merge in the first half of 2022. ------ 📣 OPOLIS | YOUR CRYPTO CAREER https://bankless.cc/Opolis  ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/  🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  🍵 MATCHA | DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE AGGREGATOR https://bankless.cc/Matcha  🔐 LEDGER | SECURE YOUR ASSETS https://bankless.cc/Ledger  🧙‍♀️ ALCHEMIX | SELF-PAYING LOANS http://bankless.cc/Alchemix  ------ TOPICS COVERED: 0:00 Intro 7:00 Launching Rocket Pool 15:50 How We Got Here 23:38 Why Decentralized Staking? 28:37 What the Numbers Say 34:38 A Public Good 39:40 The Community 47:11 Centralization Risks? 49:25 rETH 56:04 Democratizing ETH Staking 1:02:39 DeFi Integrations 1:06:30 MEV 1:14:25 Operating a Node & ODAO 1:22:02 RPL Token & Incentives 1:32:02 What's Next? 1:38:20 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES: Darren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/langerstwit?s=20  Rocket Pool: https://rocketpool.net/  Node Map: https://stake.rocketpool.net/network  RPL Investment Thesis: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/m3pug8/the_rocket_pool_investment_thesis/  ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures 

Darren Langley, general manager of Rocket Pool, discusses the benefits of liquid staking on Ethereum, the issue of centralization among liquid staking protocols, and the potential risks and safeguards in Ethereum staking. The podcast also explores the role of ICOs in decentralized protocols, the impact of decreased queue to stake on staking growth, and the integration of liquid staking tokens with the DeFi ecosystem.