StakeWise Announces Trustless Staking and End of the Bootstrapping Campaign
Our team has spent the last month working hard on the new chapter for StakeWise. It is finally the time to share some exciting news with you guys and get you the answers you had been waiting for!
Pioneers of trustless staking
We are pleased to announce that starting today, StakeWise will be the first staking pool where all new deposits are non-custodial. From now on, users of the StakeWise Pool can deposit any amount of ETH and get the benefit of having a unique token system, decentralized protocol management, and farming opportunities, along with highly secure deposits. Anyone who previously expected to stake Solo with their own key, or thought about switching from another pool to ours, can come to us without the need to trust their coins.
How does it work?
Starting today, the withdrawal of funds from the newly created validators will never need to be approved by the multi-sig, because the withdrawals will be automatically processed into the Pool Vault contract. Whereas previously the multi-sig holders were required to manually execute the withdrawal specifying Vault contract as a destination address, this step is no longer required. Instead, as soon as the withdrawal function is triggered, the funds will go directly to the Vault contract, bypassing manual execution. The Vault contract will store all the withdrawn ether on behalf of its intended recipients until they claim it.
You can learn how to verify if the Pool is non-custodial by following this guide.
Why is this important?
Most people in the crypto community have learned the lesson of “not your keys — not your coins” the hard way and are always keen to warn the newbies against entrusting their coins to 3rd party services. Pooled staking on ETH2 is no exception — the veterans continue to assert that even the multi-sig approach (used by StakeWise) does not provide sufficient reliability for staked funds. Their position is that even the tokenization and other advantages of ETH2 staking pools cannot outweigh the disadvantage of putting ETH in someone’s custody, even if it is distributed.
While we are confident in the security of our BLS Horcruxes, we can understand why some users previously shied away from pooled staking and preferred to go Solo or run their own node altogether. With the migration to a trustless staking model for new deposits, we are happy to put concerns about any sort of custody to rest and let anyone enjoy the benefits of using StakeWise Pool at the level of security they are comfortable with.
Announcing Early Adopters Campaign end date & $SWISE airdrop
We are happy to share that the Early Adopters’ Campaign is scheduled to end on April 26th, with the $SWISE airdrop happening immediately after.
$SWISE is the governance token for the StakeWise DAO, giving voting power to its holders and potentially the ability to insure the protocol against slashing via the proposed mechanism. Coming on the heels of an upgrade to non-custodial staking, this distribution of $SWISE is the last chance to earn a vote in the protocol without participating in any of the planned farming incentives. This long-awaited event will reward early stakers in StakeWise with an outsized proportion of tokens and bootstrap the protocol’s governance.
The next 5,000 ETH of deposits are still eligible for the campaign, and with the trustless staking roll-out, the incentives to join us are as high as ever.
What are the terms of the airdrop?
As announced previously, StakeWise will distribute 20,000,000 $SWISE, or 2% of the total supply, to the stakers of 25,000 ETH within the Early Adopters Campaign. The campaign is tiered and offers 1,200 $SWISE per every ETH deposited within the first tier (0–5,000 ETH), 800 $SWISE per ETH in the second tier (5,001–15,000 ETH), and 600 $SWISE per ETH in the third tier (15,001–25,000 ETH). With around 19,500 ETH already staked, only 16% of the $SWISE tokens remain unclaimed.
How much time do I have left to join?
The campaign will end once the 25,000 ETH mark is hit, or on April 26th, whichever is earliest. In case the campaign doesn’t reach 25,000 ETH staked, all the unclaimed $SWISE tokens will be returned to the StakeWise DAO Treasury. The holders of $SWISE will then be able to decide on the fate of unclaimed tokens.
How will I claim my $SWISE tokens?
StakeWise has prepared a simple interface for the campaign participants to claim their $SWISE. The instructions on how to claim the tokens will be made available simultaneously with the end of the campaign on April 26th.
Disclaimer: if the rewards calculation and contract deployment for the Merkle Drop go smoothly, the airdrop will be available within 24 hours from the end of the campaign.
Including v2 beta testers into the $SWISE airdrop
Finally, we are excited to tell you that the $SWISE airdrop will be extended to StakeWise v2 beta testers as thanks for helping to test the protocol ahead of the mainnet release. The v2 beta was incentivized, and the team made the decision to airdrop 100 $SWISE to every participant, provided they fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/wB15fJg3oG1K6qFm9. We are grateful for the feedback and suggestions we received at the time, and look forward to seeing your faces in the DAO’s governance in the future.
How will I claim my $SWISE tokens as a v2 beta tester?
StakeWise has prepared a simple interface for the beta participants to claim their $SWISE. The instructions on how to claim the tokens will be made available simultaneously with the end of the campaign on April 26th. Please note that in order to be eligible for the airdrop you need to fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/wB15fJg3oG1K6qFm9.
