Validator digest https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz undefined Thu, 29 Oct 2026 18:22:06 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en Validator digest https://img.paragraph.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto/https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f41c5efb6a1c0fefb6bddfdbf8ae4291.jpg https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz All rights reserved <![CDATA[Validator digest #0007]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0007 SJi9vP5yIGsRHRvuTBZU Mon, 11 Nov 2024 03:15:01 GMT It's been a celebratory week for crypto with Bitcoin hitting all time highs after the US election results have rolled out. President elect Trump and the US republican party have been more embracing of crypto, so there is good reason for this optimism. Here are some of my baseline expectations for the staking and validator landscape (please do note that I'm no legal expert).

  • The SEC took action against MetaMask and Coinbase for their staking products. If Gary Gensler is replaced with a more crypto friendly chair, these actions will likely be dismissed.

  • Once the SEC suits are dropped, this will give LSTs and LRTs more room to grow. LSTs and LRTs were not even considered an option by institutions due to the legal risks involved. They may soon be back on the table. We may even see an LST and LRT implemented into an ETF.

  • Many protocols have had to exclude US based validators or ask validators to use servers outside of the US regions for their incentivized testnets or delegation programs. These restrictions may no longer be a concern for protocols when selecting validators.

  • Ethereum ETFs initially mentioned staking in their offerings. The ETF issuers had to revise and drop any such plans, but if the suits against MetaMask and Coinbase are dismissed, this could give issuers more comfort to revisit this plan. On the current Fed's trajectory, we will be approaching a low interest environment within the next two years. A real yield of 3 to 4 percent on ETH will look extremely attractive to tradfi investors.

Protocol updates

EigenLayer

Namada

Space and Time

Interesting reads

  • Hyperliquid's HyperBFT: Consensus at the Speed of Light by ASXN covers the new Hotstuff inspired consensus mechanism, HyperBFT. Theoretically, HyperBFT can cover up to 2 million orders per second, which is critical to support high-frequency trading firms on Hyperliquid.

  • Parallel block building by Robert Miller (Flashbots) introduces a method of processing transactions where transactions that don't conflict can be executed in parallel rather than sequentially. This would greatly improve performance for chains like Ethereum, where parallelization has yet to be implemented.

  • LRT Liquidity and Utilization Updates (July - October) by Kairos Research dives into the recent trades for LRTs. With the exception of Ether.fi, growth has largely stalled. The post anticipates that the next leg of growth will depend on rewards from AVSs and how LRTs navigate them.

Random ramblings

  • There is some interesting drama unfolding between Degen and Conduit. Degen started off as a fun memecoin spawning from the Farcaster community. The memecoin eventually evolved into an L3 with Base underneath, which Conduit has helped build out. (Conduit is a Paradigm backed company that helps teams deploy any type of rollup.) Last week, Degen has officially communicated the difficulties they've been facing with Conduit. In face of this criticism, Andrew, the founder of Conduit, has provided his account of the current situation. I have no clue who is in the wrong here, but this situation does raise an interesting question of just exactly how much sovereignty a rollup has. I don't think Conduit has any incentive to go rogue, but there will undoubtedly be teams or team members in the future who may not be as civil.

  • Gnosis is exploring the possibility of becoming an L2. At the moment, Gnosis is a close copy of Ethereum with the same setup of using a Consensus layer and Execution layer architecture. It's a great chain to try running validators at a fraction of what it would cost to run an Ethereum validator. However, while Gnosis Chain has been a great testing ground for validators, it has not seen as much success as some peers like Polygon. Becoming an L2 could bring in more security minded users, but there is still no guarantee that TVL and chain activity will grow. We'll have to see how this conversation evolves, but it'll be a real shame to see Gnosis letting go of its validator ecosystem.

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking proofofstake validators <![CDATA[Validator digest #0006]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0006 U1uQFypM6OBR76UU2CBI Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:31:15 GMT Welcome to another week of Validator digest! I've been compiling a list of new L1s that have yet to launch (it's an old habit back from my stakefish days). I wanted to share one interesting number: 42%. That's the percentage of new L1s that are launching using CometBFT and/or Cosmos SDK.

This is validation of Cosmos' efforts in building out a protocol stack that can be deployed with extreme ease. At this point, all of the basic ecosystem toolings (monitoring, explorer, wallet, RPC, etc.) have been built out that you as an L1 have everything at your finger tips to ship a blockchain. Unfortunately, I do think this level of ease has also led to some teams taking shortcuts in their roadmap. So, we'll have to wait and see the majority of these new L1s using the Cosmos stack really live up to their promises.

Protocol updates

Astria

Elixir

  • Elixir mainnet Phase 1 has launched with a genesis set of validators. They will open up the validator set to the public in a future phase. I couldn't find public information on who are in this genesis set. If you know where I can find this information, please do share!

MANTRA

Stacks

  • Stacks Nakamoto upgrade is finally live after much anticipation. Here is a good analysis of the Nakamoto upgrade by the Luganodes team.

Story

  • Story protocol has just wrapped their Validator Race Two (their incentivized testnet). Congratulations to the winners! Story is now moving to their next testnet, Odyssey. On the staking side, Odyssey introduces some interesting new features: rewards vary depending on staking period and validators with high participation rates get higher rewards. The exact parameters have yet to be revealed, so we'll have to see these in action on November 7, when the testnet goes live.

  • The Chainflow team has been covering the weekly validator calls that have been happening. So, make sure to check out their latest notes to stay on top of these calls.

Random ramblings

  • This trend is accelerating quicker than I anticipated. Token Terminal has announced their partnership with First Set. I believe the motivation of this partnership is similar to Nansen's acquisition of Stakewithus. Integrating and maintaining Token Terminal and Nansen on new protocols is no easy feat. They rightfully will require some financial incentive to follow through with integrations. From a protocol's perspective, it is much easier politically, legally, and financially to strike delegation deals rather than grant deals. This will be bad news for vanilla validator shops and small independent validators who will likely be pushed out to make room for strategic partners.

  • Kiln has put together a nice post on what stakers can expect from the Pectra, the upcoming Ethereum upgrade.

  • Valuations of newly launched chains have been struggling as of late. Grass (L1) and Scroll (L2) have been hovering near or below the $1 billion fully diluted valuation mark. This does not bode well for all the new protocols that are in the pipeline right now. $1 billion is no longer a guaranteed threshold and this will factor into future fundraises. This has ramifications for validators as well. Operators will need to carefully reassess which protocols to support from early on.

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking proofofstake validators <![CDATA[Validator digest #0005]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0005 l0DVkOzhpkzLeFhfL6B1 Sun, 27 Oct 2024 00:10:32 GMT Welcome to another week of the Validator digest! Blockworks has released an insightful report (funded by Obol and Liquid Collective) surveying institutions on their thoughts on Ethereum staking. I wanted to highlight a few things that caught my eye.

  • 66% of respondents said they were familiar with Distributed Validator (DV) technology. There may be some bias here given that the report is funded by Obol, but nonetheless, this gives hope that institutions will keep up to date on stacks that could help mitigate operational risks and ultimately network wide failures. Let's just hope that they also aggressively adopt these measures.

  • 74% of respondents answered that they understand the risks of restaking. This one is a bit concerning because I don't think there is enough tangible information to reach any conclusion on restaking risks. So far, the only information we have is that restaking will have some form of slashing and that's pretty much it. No AVS has publicly announced what their slashing schedule will look like.

  • 76% of respondents felt comfortable staking using an LST. This is much higher than I expected and shows how comfortable people have become with LST protocols. The next step here is hopefully for these learnings to transfer from crypto institutions to non-crypto institutional players. I'd love to see ETFs of LSTs one day.

Protocol updates

BNB Chain

Elixir

Ethereum

Solana

Random ramblings

  • AI memecoins are all the craze right now. I wonder how long it will take before we see an AI agent promoting or running a validator. Similar to how it's doing now for memecoins, I imagine the AI agent will keep taking over mindshare on social media and push more stake to its own validator. What sort of objectives will the AI agent have for its validator? Will it become an unstoppable force capturing more stake than we would feel comfortable? Will social consensus be the only defense mechanism against such a scenario?

  • Chorus One put out a piece discussing that APR is a subpar method of evaluating validators. This is true even for LSTs and LRTs, but I don't think we're ready to have that discussion yet. This article further highlights the importance of tools like Rated which help stakers properly evaluate validator performance.

  • Lavender.Five has shared their thoughts on how Berachain staking will work out. Berachain staking is unique than most and will require validators to take a more active role in the ecosystem. If you don't have a game plan, now is a good time to begin here and start setting up a strategy.

  • Here is one more interesting post from Lavender.Five. They gave a nice answer to Smokey from Berachain on some dos and don'ts for newly launching L1s.

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) proofofstake staking validators <![CDATA[Validator digest #0004]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0004 v02nhb7RElqJtLY1N25D Thu, 17 Oct 2024 08:31:41 GMT Welcome to another week of Validator digest! The biggest announcement this past week came from the Uniswap team who unveiled a new L2 dedicated to DeFi, Unichain. Most interestingly, they have announced from the get-go that they will have validators play a role in providing fast finality. Will this finally be the signal of many more L2s to decentralize their stack? Let's check out some of the L2s that have announced their intentions to decentralize their stack by permissionlessly bringing in external operators.

Protocol

Validator role

URL

Unichain

"a decentralized network of node operators that independently validate the latest blockchain state"

https://docs.unichain.org/whitepaper.pdf

Linea

"The accountability feature of QBFT combined with the validators’ stake guarantees L2-finality."

https://community.linea.build/t/proposal-towards-linea-s-decentralization/7701

Metis

"We have launched a Decentralized Sequencer Pool to achieve full decentralization in Layer 2 networks and avoid the single-point failures derived from centralized sequencers."

https://docs.metis.io/dev/protocol/overview

Starknet

"Starknet will use a leader-based consensus protocol, with proof-of-stake for Sybil resistance. The role of the first layer is to allow people to join and leave the set of stakers, and to allow all L1 full nodes to determine the present stake distribution and upcoming leader schedule."

https://community.starknet.io/t/simple-decentralized-protocol-proposal/99693

Going off of memory, I remember zkSync and Fuel Network having some early discussions on decentralizing their stacks. I failed to locate the relevant communication threads that validate my memory. If anyone has links, please share them with me!

Protocol updates

Avail / Symbiotic

  • Avail has announced their integration of their Fusion layer with Symbiotic. Fusion is one of Avail's key layer that supports any asset to be staked to secure Avail and by extension Avail DA. With this partnership, any assets restaked on Symbiotic can be staked on Avail Fusion as well. So, theoretically, you can have ETH that: 1) secures Ethereum mainnet, 2) restaked on Symbiotic to secure a co-processor AVS, 3) staked on Avail Fusion to secure Avail, and 4) securing Avail DA.

Conduit

Hyperliquid

  • HyperLiquid announced their HYPE token which will be used to secure their own Proof of Stake network. HyperLiquid has been consistently hitting $1 billion in trading volume, so it's undoubtedly a massive opportunity for validators.

Namada

  • Namada Delegation Program has been announced. Application period is until the end of this month. Up to 50 validators will qualify for this program and will receive delegations for 6 months.

Announcing the Namada Delegation Program | Blog - Namada

The Namada Delegation Program program will select validators committed to maintaining high uptime performance, security to the network, and contributing meaningfully to the ecosystem long term.

https://namada.net

Solana

Random ramblings

  • All successful applications will eventually become their own L1s or L2s. It's an obvious evolution, especially if the existing L1 and L2 have roadmaps and considerations that are independent of the applications. I think the most representative example is dYdX which moved to L2 using StarkEx built by Starkware before moving to using the Cosmos SDK to become its own L1. It's difficult to tell whether dYdX's migrations are considered successful since so many competitors spawned during this period.

  • Eventually all tokens need a core use case other than just being a governance token. I don't think there has been any better use case than using tokens to secure a protocol. How do you make this happen for an application that doesn't really need its own dedicated security? You create an L1 or L2 with decentralized roles with a staking mechanism. I am willing to bet that the vast majority of the top 100 coins will have some form of (re)staking mechanism within the next 2 years, even including memecoins.

  • Staking Summit this year is packed with great speakers! I've attended both of their events in the previous two years and have found them to be extremely helpful to connect with validators and protocols. Worthwhile to note is that there aren't that many stakers at the event, so make sure to manage your expectations when preparing. https://www.stakingrewards.com/summit

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking proofofstake validators <![CDATA[Validator digest #0003]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0003 qJoL7tUgTMSxxVANJzn8 Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Jon (@jon_charb on X) of DBA has put out a great piece on L1 and L2 value capture. The post unpacks the economics of token holders (stakers), validators, and protocol issuance in great depth. It's quite a long read, so prepare a big cup of coffee this weekend before diving in.

L1 & L2 Token Value Capture - DBA

Thank you to Dan Smith and Mike Ippolito for valuable input, review, and related discussions. The views expressed in this post are solely my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the reviewers. You can also listen to our podcast covering this post on Spotify or YouTube.

https://dba.xyz

Protocol updates

Celestia

Polkadot

Stacks

Tezos

  • The latest upgrade proposal for Tezos has been highly contentious. Two proposals were initially proposed: Quebec A and Quebec B.

    • Block time reduction from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.

    • Fixes to how delegations are computed.

    • Adaptive maximum issuance bound.

    • Reduction to the stake power of delegations (only for Quebec B).

  • The adaptive maximum issuance bound was introduced in order to prevent a scenario where issuance remains too high despite As a response, Qena proposal was put forward, which includes the block time reduction and delegation computation fixes, but forgoes any changes to the economic parameters.

  • While Qena has yet to pass quorum or supermajority (both conditions required for the proposal to pass to the next stage), it has been getting more support than the Quebec proposals.

Random ramblings

  • Both EigenLayer and Celestia enabling staking for investors have been widely discussed on CT this past 2 weeks. It's surprising that this topic comes and goes every cycle. Despite the public outcry, this practice will likely not change any time soon. No protocol has ever been punished by the market for letting investors stake. As long as the market shows indifference, this will continue to be common practice.

  • Despite the increase in demand for validators from L1s, AVSs and other middleware, we have yet to see a wave of new validator entrants. I wish I am exaggerating, but by my count there are at least 60 AVSs in the pipeline alone. Big validators cannot be present on every single one of these projects. There is bound to be opportunities that are missed. If you are a validator that have recently entered this space (< 1 year), please reach out. I am keen to connect and learn more about you.

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking validators proof of stake <![CDATA[Validator digest #0002]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0002 AuG14a2CU1Us6vaDqX2A Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Welcome to the third week of Validator digest! For this week, I'm sharing a list of all the interesting writings on assessing risks for EigenLayer AVSs. There's been a noticeable uptick in teams assessing AVSs for operators and LRTs. These posts should give you a sense on how some of them are trying to approach this topic.

As a reminder, I'm constantly maintaining the list of AVSs I've seen on the market today. I've begun adding in Symbiotic AVSs as well.

AVS list by Validator digest | Notion

Last updated: September 25, 2024

https://apybara.notion.site

Protocol updates

Avalanche

  • Avalanche has a major upgrade scheduled to happen before the end of 2024 called the Etna upgrade (aka Avalanche9000).

  • This upgrade includes a major change for how subnets are validated. Previously, subnet validators needed to be a validator on the P-Chain and sync with all three primary Avalanche networks (P-, X-, C-Chains). Following this upgrade, subnet validators will only need to sync with the P-Chain without needing to validate the P-Chain. Consequently, subnet validators will no longer be required to stake 2000 AVAX. Instead, they'll need to pay a small fee in AVAX to participate.

  • Read more: https://github.com/avalanche-foundation/ACPs/blob/main/ACPs/77-reinventing-subnets/README.md.

Babylon

Cosmos

EigenLayer & LayerZero

  • EigenLayer and LayerZero partnered up to introduce a new framework called Decentralized Verifier Networks (DVN). LayerZero was secured by a permissioned set of DVNs up to now. It was well expected that they would eventually expand their operator set. However, it is interesting that with this framework, LayerZero will accept ETH and EIGEN as stake on top of their own token ZRO.

  • Read more: https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/dvn/.

Random ramblings

  • Golem Network has shared results from testing out running 200 validators on a Raspberry Pi 5. Read more here: https://blog.golem.network/eth-staking-tests-summary/.

  • Here is a fun little side quest that you can try for Babylon's cap raise. You can bet on Bitcoin fees using Alkimiya. Unless you have a direct relation with a major Bitcoin miner or mining pool, it'll be very challenging to successfully deposit into Babylon. Why not play the fee market instead of trying to race against miners?

  • What is a good vs bad AVS? At the end of the day, this is the ultimate question on determining which AVSs to support as an operator or LRT. This feels similar to making a decision on which new L1s to support. I don't think any validator has truly cracked how to pick successful L1s, and I don't expect anyone to figure this secret out for AVSs any time soon.

  • The relationship between the operators and LRTs will become more complex as well. Operators are no longer doing the simple job of validating Ethereum. They need to run AVSs, which will have differing levels of complexity and requirements. Which LRTs will effectively monitor, manage and communicate with operators? How will LRTs effectively persuade operators to run the AVSs they select?

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking validators eigenlayer proof of stake <![CDATA[Validator digest #0001]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0001 J5mZbJGpm4dqWViUxVyC Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Welcome to the second week of Validator digest! I am starting off this week by sharing a list I've compiled to track all the EigenLayer AVS that have been announced so far. I am certain there are many that I am missing, so take a look and let me know what I need to add.

AVS list by Validator digest | Notion

Last updated: September 23, 2024

https://apybara.notion.site

Protocol updates

Solana

Aptos

Cosmos Hub

  • Gaia v20 is being voted on the Cosmos Hub. Two key changes are planned for this upgrade.

    • Chains can permissionlessly opt to become a consumer chain (ICS secured chain).

    • Consumer chains can accept validators outside of the Cosmos Hub validators.

Osmosis

Aleo

Interesting opportunities

WalletConnect Network

Story

  • Story Protocol has been running their testnet (called "Illiad"). Their network is based on CometBFT, which means this will be a good opportunity for Cosmos eco validators to get involved from the ground up.

Random ramblings

  • I wanted to highlight Chainflow's Solana Validator Discussions newsletter. The Solana validator ecosystem has some of the most active discussions. It could be overwhelming to keep up with them, but thankfully Chainflow's team has been running a weekly newsletter to help Solana validators stay on top of these discussions. I strongly recommend subscribing to their newsletter if you have a Solana validator! https://chainflowsol.substack.com/

  • Here is a bit of Solana validator math by 0x_Osprey. About 405 validators have more than 99,000 SOL in stake today, which is about 27% of all active validators on Solana. Keep in mind that Solana has a market cap of $70 billion, so this validator math will look uglier as we go down the list of L1s.

  • The point above brings up a long standing question: what is the right number of validators for a network? It seems like the right course of action is to limit the number of active validator spots. This would ensure that all active validators are at a minimum guaranteed a sustainable revenue stream. However, on the flip side, this makes it nearly impossible for new validators to enter, limiting growth of the validator ecosystem. What should protocols prioritize first, validator sustainability or validator ecosystem participation?

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking validators proof of stake eigenlayer avs <![CDATA[Validator digest #0000]]> https://paragraph.com/@staking_xyz/validator-digest-0000 CwR5UMQPU9sG1k8AUl7x Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Welcome to the first ever Validator digest! Do you run nodes that help secure blockchains? Are you a protocol specialist keeping track of protocol upgrades and governance? Are you a devops engineer tasked with monitoring protocols? This newsletter is dedicated to you, to help you become better informed on developments that concern you as a validator.

Here is what you can expect from this newsletter:

  • Protocol upgrade related news

  • Protocol incidents or developments that impact validators

  • Regulatory news that affect stakers

  • Governance decisions that pertain to validators and staking

  • New opportunities coming up on the horizon

I will keep most points succinct and keep everything covered tailored specifically for validators. Feedback is welcome (you can find me @proofofjk on X or Telegram) and please let me know how I can make this newsletter impactful for you!

Protocol updates

This section will go through key updates for protocols I track. I am going to keep these updates succinct and limited to news that are important to validators. I will keep expanding the list of protocols tracked, but do let me know if there are any protocols you'd like prioritized.

Ethereum

  • Per Christine of Galaxy, Ethereum core devs are considering the possibility of splitting up the Pectra upgrade into two parts. It seems though that all EIPs that have the biggest impact on validators are being prioritized and will be part of the first part of Pectra if the upgrade was to happen in two parts. Check out her tweets below to understand the implications.

  • Here is a refresher on Pectra EIPs that are most relevant for validators. Pectra is expected to go live early 2025.

    • EIP-6110: The Execution Layer will be responsible for handling new deposits. This will significantly decrease the amount of time it takes for new deposits to be processed (roughly down to 13 minutes from 12 hours).

    • EIP-7002: The Execution Layer will be able to trigger validator exits. We can finally create fully non-custodial staking designs and enable users to trigger unstaking rather than having to trust validators to execute unstaking requests.

    • EIP-7251: Max effective balance for validators will be increased to 2048 ETH from 32 ETH. Minimum stake required will be maintained at 32 ETH. This will help consolidate the number of validators on the network today since you no longer need to run multiple validators for stake up to 2048 ETH. However, you will need to consider the risk that one slashing event could have more impact now with a larger stake.

EigenLayer

  • EigenLayer is changing up how their security model works, adding in a new layer called "unique stake."

  • Operators can select any AVS they wish to support as they do now with their "total stake." This "total stake" cannot be slashed and can be allocated to any number of AVSs selected by operators. "Unique stake" is exclusive stake allocated to each AVS and is subject to slashing rules set by each AVS. Operators can only allocate "unique stake" up to the total stake they have delegated to them. (I find the "unique stake" concept similar to how Indexers needed allocated stake to subgraphs on The Graph.)

  • Link: https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/introducing-the-eigenlayer-security-model/.

Celestia

Interesting opportunities

This section will go through any opportunities that may be worthwhile to check out as validators. I have no opinions on how well these projects will do, but I will simply use my best judgment on what projects I would have on my radar.

Starknet staking (L2)

Edge by Chaos Labs (Oracle)

  • Chaos Labs has rolled out Edge, a decentralized oracle network, that is being used as Jupiter's main oracle on Solana.

  • They have onboarded Blockdaemon, Nethermind and MatrixedLink to help decentralize the operator set. I suspect they'll want more operators as they expand their footprint.

Hyperliquid

  • Hyperliquid has been all the buzz amongst traders for their perp exchange. It's currently running on their own L1 that is based on a Hotstuff inspired consensus algorithm.

  • They have socially signaled that testing with validators have begun. Given the trade volume and traction Hyperliquid has seen, this could be an interesting opportunity. As a rough benchmark, on days that dYdX traded more than $1 billion in volume, stakers were receiving above 20% APR on their staked tokens (side note: dYdX does not provide inflationary rewards, all of its rewards comes from fees generated on its platform).

Random ramblings

  • A flurry of acquisitions have occurred in the validator landscape in the past couple of months. Alchemy acquired Bware Labs. Nansen acquired Stakewithus. Pier Two acquired Numic. Galaxy acquired Cryptomanufaktur. The last time we've seen major acquisitions was back in 2021, when Bison Trails was acquired by Coinbase, Staked was acquired by Kraken and Anyblocks was acquired by Blockdaemon. Will we see more acquisitions before the year ends?

  • On the topic of EigenLayer security model, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of firms working on creating AVS risk frameworks. This entire topic has been a head scratcher. I don't see a huge difference in the process of selecting an AVS versus selecting a new L1. There wasn't a widely accepted framework on assessing L1s, so I don't know how it'd be any different with assessing AVSs. Nonetheless, there are a couple of worthwhile reads on this topic that I can share when I do a longer coverage on restaking.

Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!

]]> staking_xyz@newsletter.paragraph.com (JK) staking validators proof of stake