Rocket Pool, the first fully decentralized non-custodial staking protocol for ETH2 continues its successful launch with its planned “Stage 4” release.

Upon launching Stage 4, the Rocket Pool Twitter account reported an almost instant max-out of node operator spots, and a total value exceeding $100 Million Dollars (RPL and ETH combined).

A Long Time Coming: The Rocket Pool Journey

The idea for Rocket Pool was first conceived in 2016, when Ethereum was a brand new protocol taking its first steps in a decentralized world controlled by Bitcoin and other Proof-Of-Work chains (some long forgotten by now).

Because the Ethereum roadmap called for a transition to Proof-Of-Stake as soon as possible, the Rocket Pool founders got to work early, way before the launch of the Ethereum Beacon Chain (that recently celebrated its first anniversary).

The main idea for Rocket Pool was to embody the core ethos of Ethereum and DeFi, specifically its non-custodial, trustless nature. But the team quickly found that doing so is no easy feat.

Creating a truly non custodial staking solution turned out to be a significant challenge that required many iterations, thinking and re-thinking, and most importantly – auditing.

After 5 years of work however, the dream that many considered to be almost impossible, came into fruition (despite last minute setbacks).

Rocket Pool: Too Good To Be True?

So what’s the catch? How did Rocket Pool create this kind of solution?

Technically, the only possible ‘downside’, if you can call it that, lies in the fact that you will be switching your ETH to rETH.

As Rocket Pool puts it:

When a user deposits into the Rocket Pool network, they will instantly receive the rETH token which represents a tokenised staking deposit and the rewards it gains over time in the Rocket Pool network.

The good thing about this is that rETH is liquid.

You can move it, use it, it’s not locked. And you still get staking rewards.

But at the same time, it creates Rocket Pool’s downside: The risk of the protocol being compromised.

Its true that Rocket Pool passed many audits, but still, if the protocol gets hacked or exploited, you are more at risk with holding rETH than native ETH. This is definitely something to keep in mind when deciding to stake on Rocket Pool.

That being said, Rocket Pool puts security as its number 1 priority. And as time goes by and the protocol continues to prove itself, the chances of something like this happening to Rocket Pool are being significantly reduced.

We are definitely believers.

How To Stake On Rocket Pool

Staking on Rocket Pool is available on https://stake.rocketpool.net

We think that the coolest thing about Rocket Pool is that there’s no entry barrier. You can stake as little as 0.01 ETH and enjoy the same eth staking rewards as anyone else, without trusting your keys to a third party. Neat.