Modular Staking Infrastructure: A Library & Standard for Ownership

In today’s world, users and protocols find themselves at the mercy of third party staking providers, entrusting them with their funds, receiving an IOU token, and having little to no say in how their assets are managed.

One dominant provider has emerged, destined to break the milestone of holding 33% of ETH stake.

Consumers and protocols alike are surrendering their ownership in return for composability & yield. Liquid staking is inadvertently fueling a flywheel of trust and centralization.

Geode is here to provide an alternative to the status quo. We are not a liquid staking provider.

Geode is a liquid staking enabler.

What is a liquid staking enabler?

Smart Contract Infrastructure: A set of trustless & non-custodial fully automated smart contracts that enables projects to permissionlessly build their very own custom Ethereum staking solution, while keeping full control and custody of their own assets in 1 on-chain transaction.

By building your own pool you:

• Create your very own instance of our smart contracts which you control
• Choose your own custom parameters
• Withdrawal credentials are pointed to a contract solely under your control.

Anything that is possible within Ethereum staking can be built through this infrastructure, such as:

• Public & Private Pools
• Rebasing & Value Accrual LST’s
• Yield Separation
• Synthetic Minting
• Restaking

The Benefits Of Full Ownership:

Risk Management:

You can manage your risk profile by allocating stake to node operators in increments of 32 ETH. Simply choose which node operators you wish to use, rather than relying on DAO governance, or allowing it to be chosen for you. You can even manage your own nodes if you wish to do so, giving you total control over every aspect of the way your pool is run.

Generate More Fees:

You’re able to charge your own staking as a service fee when people deposit into your staking pool, creating additional revenue for you instead of giving it away to a third party. Users can also monetise treasury assets, or funds of their own by using the private pool feature, and avoid staking as a service fees altogether.

Maintain Control:

Not your keys, not your crypto. Withdrawal credentials are pointed to a smart contract within your own instance that is only accessible by the Ethereum address or multisig that was used to create the pool. Geode cannot even upgrade any smart contract without your approval.

Customizability:

You can build your pool however you wish! Geode’s infrastructure puts no limits on what you’re able to accomplish with your staking pool. Basically, anything that’s possible within staking is possible using Geodes infrastructure — rebasing or value accrual liquid staking tokens, synthetic minting, public or private pools, etc.

Segregation:

Every single pool is fully segregated at the validator level, meaning your pool is completely unaffected by any other actors. Isolating validators in this fashion ensures that no matter what happens with other staking pools, your own pool will not be impacted.

Empowering Control by Eliminating Trust Points:

Withdraw Credentials:

Node Operators cannot create a validator on behalf of a pool unless the withdrawal credential is pointed to the smart contract controlled by the pool owner, removing any custody or control of the funds by Geode, or your chosen node operator(s).

Limited Upgradability:

When it comes to protocol upgrades, Geode cannot upgrade the version of your pool instance without your permission. Pool owners have to approve each upgrade, removing trust at the infrastructure layer.

Senate:

The Senate will consist of an elected group of pool owners which will have the opportunity to veto Governance proposals. This provides a self-governing ecosystem whereby pool owners have a say on the direction of the protocol. Proposals cannot be bought via large token holders, as the Senate has the final say.

Bring your own Governance:

Give your token holders the ability to vote on the various aspects of your own staking solution. Let them vote on items such as:

• Node Operator distribution
• Setting & spending staking fees
• Restaking opportunities

Example use cases for Geodes Infrastructure:

DAO Treasuries:

Create a private staking pool to monetise treasury ETH while keeping full custody of the DAO’s assets. Avoid staking as a service fees, and the need to spread your funds across multiple providers. Just allocate funds to different node operators according to your risk appetite.

DAO Treasuries: Why pay Lido when you don’t have to?

Custom Liquid Staking Token:

Create your own LST offering and integrate it into your own products and beyond. Support your own stablecoin, vaults or strategies and capture the value directly instead of giving it away to a third party.

Bridges:

Improve bridge security by removing honeypots by staking a percentage of the Eth in your contracts on the beacon chain. Generate yield for your bridge users or create innovative USP’s such as free bridging, paid for by the yield you’re now generating.

Squad Staking:

Create a private staking pool and permission selected friends to stake in your pool. Run the nodes yourself or allocate stake to node operators of your choice, and stake together! Each depositor has a claim to the funds they deposited, and you can even mint your own branded token for your squad!

A Competitive Node Operator Marketplace

Our staking library includes a competitive node operator marketplace, which connects staking pools with node operators. This allows staking pool owners to manage risk by choosing their preferred node operators, in 32 ETH increments. By allocating stake to professional node operators, pool owners can avoid the maintenance and infrastructure requirements of running their own nodes.

Node operators benefit by integrating with Geode to access all current and future staking pools, resulting in a relatively easy way to gain additional stake under management. Additionally, our marketplace doesn’t pool node operators together, incentivising node operators to perform.

What’s Next?

A few things to look forward to:

• Mainnet Launch
• Native Restaking
• Aggregated instant exit pool for LST’s
• Further decentralization

Join the community:

To participate in Geode’s community and stay up to date on the latest alpha, join our Discord. For the latest Geode developments follow us on Twitter, and for more educational content follow us on Medium. To use Geode, visit geode.fi!