As we all know, this is the year of the merger of Ethereum PoS and PoW and the rise of public chains with PoS (Proof of Stake) mechanism (e.g. Terra, Sol, Cosmos, etc.), as well as the energy-consuming PoW (Proof of Work) mechanism, the PoS Staking will have a lot of room for growth in the future.

The current market capitalisation of the PoS circuit is $304,082,372,929, with $212,115,215,744 in pledged assets, and the main channels for user pledges are centralised/decentralised exchanges, Staking Custody Providers, and decentralised staking platforms such as Lido Finance, Ssv.network and RocketPOOL.

This article introduces Staker Labs, a new dark horse on the Staking.

Top 5 Crypto Assets by Staked Value

Overview

Staker Labs - a crypto asset pledge management platform that removes the complexity of token pledging from PoS chains by providing an end-to-end management solution that allows retail and institutional investors to participate in PoS pledges and gain more rewards.

Current pledges face three main issues between principals, verifiers, and network stakeholders: 1. principals face complexities around discovery and mandate management; 2. node operators need to be properly visible and mandated to avoid penalties; and 3. PoS networks face a concentration of interest.

To address these issues, Stader groups verifiers based on key characteristics such as uptime, penalty history, community engagement, etc. Principals can pledge assets to a pool of verifiers in one click and manage the delegation to verifiers through an algorithm.

Note: Currently it is mainly used for pledging Terra (~$847M) and will be linked to Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Near and other PoS public chains in the future.

Stader Modularisation Solution

Stader aims to be the middle tier of the infrastructure of Pledge Roc High School, helping third parties develop pledge products on Stader by modularising the agreed smart contracts, providing them with the opportunity to interact with the public chain they are linked to, thereby enhancing the value capture of pledged assets.

1. Principal contracts: The principals assets to receive rewards and airdrops.

2. Validator Contract: Pledges the principal's assets to receive rewards and airdrops.

3. Pool contracts: Overseeing the verifier and managing the pledge pool for each verifier.

4. Strategic Contracts: Use pledged incentives and synthetic assets to integrate with other DeFi agreements to expand revenue.

Module Features

1. Separation of pledged assets and rewards, increasing security and enabling new DeFi applications around pledged rewards;

2. Provision of liquid pledged tokens; 3. One-click pledging to multiple validation nodes and to receive eco-project airdrops;

3. All-in-one API interface for exchanges to pledge to Stader;

4. Customized pledging platform for large institutional clients.

5. Customised pledge platforms for large institutional investors.

For example: create bespoke products to meet the requirements of specific groups of principals; venture funds can create bespoke strategy contracts and deposit betting bonuses into their LP wallets to avoid multiple taxations; use Stader's principal contracts to enable one-click pledging; external DeFi protocols or gaming applications can be integrated with strategy contracts, etc.

Applications

LUNAX: A liquid pledge token that users receive when they pledge $LUNA to Stader. In addition to pledging and project airdrop bonuses, $LUNAX has applications such as LP mining, $UST lending, fee bonuses, automatic reinvestment, options contracts, cross-chain compatibility, and integration with Anchor.

Stake Pools TVL: 4,315,088 LUNA ~ $846.28M, APR ~ 10.56%*.

Token Economy

$SD - ERC20 tokens, with a maximum supply of 150M tokens.

The allocation is as follows.

36% Bonus & Liquidity Mining: Release is based on a governance proposal "User Incentive Scheme", which is now open.

17% Team & Advisors: $6 months lock-up followed by 36 months of linear unlocking after $SD goes live.

17% Private Placement: 0-5% of quota released before $SD launch, remainder to be unlocked linearly over 36 months.

15% Dao Fund: voted on by community proposal.

11% EcoFund: 0.5%-1.5% quota released before $SD launch, remainder voted on by community proposal.

4% Coinlist public offering: Stage 1 - Locked for 40 days, then 20% released monthly starting on or around 8 March 2022; Stage 2 - Locked for 3 months, starting on or around 8 March 2022.

Locked for 3 months, then 20% released every 2 months starting on or about April 25, 2022.

Token features:

1. Preferential Mandates and Insurance: Validators may pledge a minimum amount of $SD and will be allocated a proportion of the pool's principals based on the $SD pledged; the $SD pledged by the validator is covered by an agreed insurance policy.

2. Liquidity incentives & discounts: $SD incentives for liquidity pool providers on DEX; $SD pledgers may receive a discount on the fees charged by Stader Solutions.

3. Proposal voting governance: governors propose and vote on agreements, validator pool selection, validator selection, and other related proposals.

4. Development access to Stader infrastructure: protocols/builders access Stader infrastructure/smart contracts by pledging $SD.

Team Background

Amitej, CEO & Co-Founder: 10+ years of strategic consulting and entrepreneurial management experience with Swiggy, ATKearney, IIT, and IIM alumni.

Sidhartha, CTO & Co-Founder: Deeply skilled in cryptocurrency mining, 10+ years experience building and scaling technology applications, Columbia University and IIT alumni.

Dheeraj, Head of Protocols & Co-Founder: 10+ years of engineering experience in Silicon Valley, worked for LinkedIn, Blend, PayPal, UT Austin, and IIT alumni.

Vijay, Head of Product: 10+ years of experience in product management and operations with Booking.com, IIT, and NIT alumni.

Gautam, Head of Strategy & Expansion: 10+ years of experience in i-banking, consulting, and investment. Formerly with Kearney, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Financing Information

1. Completed $4M seed round in October 2021, led by Pantera Capital, with VCs including Coinbase Ventures and Jump Capital and some angel investors.

2. Completed a $12.5M funding round in January 2022 at a valuation of $450M, led by Three Arrows Capital, with VCs including Amber and Blockchain.com and a number of angel investors.

3. Completed $23.5M in token $SD funding through CoinList in late January 2022.

Institutional Investors: Pantera, Coinbase, Three Arrows Capital, JumpCapital, TrueVentures, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment, Solidity Ventures, Ledgerprime, Double Peak Group, and TerraForm Labs, among others.

Angel Investors: Polygon CEO Jaynti Kanani & COO Sandeep Nailwal, Anchorage co-founder Diogo Monica, Staked CEO Tim Ogilvie, Coinbase Head of Cryptocurrency Nemil Dalal, Race Capital Fund Manager Chris McCann, Biconomy COO Aniket Jindal & CEO Ahmed Al Balaghi, EPNS CEO Harsh Rajat, CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta.

Conclusion

StaderLabs, the middle tier infrastructure for staking, has a modular solution that allows for more combinability in asset pledging, i.e. connecting to official public chains and external DeFi derivatives, exchanges and financial institutions to increase Token value capture. We are looking forward to the introduction of Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos and other public chains and the addition of more nodes. This will bring in more users with more DeFi agreements, free up the liquidity of Tokens (EthX, SolX, AtomX, etc.) and pledge more $SD!

Refferences: 1. https://staderlabs-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/Stader_Litepaper.pdf

2. https://staderlabs-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/Stader_LunaX_Litepaper.pdf

3. https://www.stakingrewards.com/

4. https://blog.staderlabs.com/stader-completes-a-strategic-private-sale-of-12-5m-26b4be5ed731