The Ethereum staking ecosystem is ushering in a major upgrade

With the rapid development of the Ethereum staking market, market participants increasingly demand more flexible and customized staking solutions. To meet this demand, an important upgrade to the staking infrastructure is about to be launched.

This upgrade introduces a new type of staking solution called the staking vault (stVaults), designed to provide customized Ethereum staking plans for various users. stVaults allows users to customize parameters such as validation, fee structure, and risk-return, to meet the specific needs of different stakers.

For institutional investors, stVaults allow them to retain funds in non-custodial contracts while enjoying the liquidity of stETH, helping to meet regulatory and risk management requirements. Node operators can customize solutions for large clients to enhance returns. Asset managers can flexibly adjust strategies to optimize capital efficiency.

From a technical perspective, stVault is a smart contract that supports non-custodial delegated liquid staking through a single node operator and can mint stETH. It allows users to customize the risk-return configuration of liquid staking without affecting the stability of the existing stETH.

stVaults have flexible configuration options to meet various needs such as institutional staking, leveraged staking, and risk control for re-staking. It provides developers with a modular infrastructure that supports the creation of staking products and tools that adapt to the ecosystem.

This upgrade is expected to further enhance the decentralization of Ethereum. Each stVault has an independent operator, which helps to reduce node concentration. It also introduces mechanisms to balance capital efficiency, validator performance, and stake concentration. Users can choose whether or not to adopt the new features, maintaining the openness of Ethereum.

The upgrade plan is launched in three phases: first, it supports early adopters to build re-staking vaults, then it will conduct testnet deployment, and finally, it will fully enable key features on the mainnet.

Overall, this upgrade provides greater flexibility for institutional investors, node operators, and asset managers by introducing customizable staking solutions. While meeting the needs of different participants, it also aims to balance the decentralization, liquidity, and security of Ethereum, laying the foundation for the long-term development of the Ethereum staking ecosystem.