Rocket Pool — Contact

Website

Contact us here via email or just read up on Rocket Pool.

Contact us here via email or just read up on Rocket Pool. Discord

Drop by for a chat and ask some questions, we’re a friendly bunch.

Drop by for a chat and ask some questions, we’re a friendly bunch. Twitter

Chat rooms not your thing? We post all updates here too!

Chat rooms not your thing? We post all updates here too! Blog

You’re reading it :) But there’s a few more articles to be found…

Rocket Pool — General

What is Proof of Stake?

Proof of Stake is a consensus protocol coming to Ethereum in 2020. Currently Ethereum uses the Proof of Work (PoW) protocol, which you may have heard of before, because Bitcoin uses PoW. With a decentralised blockchain, these consensus protocols help keep everyone on the same page, so we all know what transactions have been processed and in what order.

Ethereum will transition to a new Proof of Stake (PoS) chain called the beacon chain, which is faster, more energy efficient and more decentralised than PoW. It’s powered by users depositing ETH and providing an Ethereum node online 24/7 to perform the required validation. As a reward for providing the node, the beacon chain gives node operators additional ETH on top of their deposits. It can be viewed similarly to earning interest in a bank account, with the exception these rewards are generated in return for helping secure the network.

What does Rocket Pool do?

Rocket Pool is a decentralised staking infrastructure service that will allow users, dapps and businesses to earn rewards on their ETH holdings using the beacon chain, Ethereum’s new PoS chain due in 2020. The Rocket Pool smart contracts are the heart of the network and they help assign deposits for staking to decentralised node operators who do the staking for you.

Why would I need to use it?

Rocket Pool removes several high barriers to entry that will exist with Proof of Stake on the Ethereum 2.0 network for both individuals, groups and businesses.

The beacon chain requires a deposit of at least 32 ETH . Rocket Pool will allow anyone to earn rewards on deposits as small as 0.01 ETH .

. Rocket Pool will allow anyone to earn rewards on deposits as small as . Depositing ETH with the beacon chain will also require the user to have knowledge on how to interact with smart contracts. Rocket Pool handles all interactions with the beacon chain for you.

Ethereum 2.0 is being rolled out over several phases. Depositing during the early phase 0 or 1 means your deposit is locked until phase 2 arrives which could be several years. With Rocket Pool you instantly get our rETH token when depositing, this is a tokenised staking deposit which gains rewards over time and doesn’t need to be locked with us. It can be traded/sold/held at anytime providing our users with liquidity. It will be able to be traded for staked ETH in phase 2.

token when depositing, this is a tokenised staking deposit which gains rewards over time and doesn’t need to be locked with us. It can be traded/sold/held at anytime providing our users with liquidity. It will be able to be traded for staked ETH in phase 2. The beacon chain will require a user who makes a deposit to be technically proficient at running an Ethereum node 24/7 and keeping that node online + secure. Rocket Pool has a decentralised network of independent Ethereum node operators that provide this service.

The beacon chain will penalise users who make a deposit but fail to keep their node online. Rocket Pool socialises any penalties or losses that occur on nodes across the whole network which minimises the effect greatly for any single user.

Some users may be confident in running their own node but do not have the 32 ETH required for the deposit. If they join Rocket Pool’s decentralised network of Ethereum nodes, they only need 16 ETH minimum to solo stake. They also get the added benefit of receiving extra income from the network for providing this service which generates a higher ROI than staking solo.

How does it work?

Hold tight, this is a meaty one! Rocket Pool is primarily composed of 3 main elements, Smart Contracts, the Smart Node Network and Minipool Validators.

Our Smart Contracts accept ETH deposits, assign them to node operators, issue + track various tokens and handle interactions with the beacon chain. They can also detect if a smart node in the network has gone down and will automatically disable it from receiving any new users until it is repaired.

Our Smart Node Network is a decentralised network of special Ethereum nodes that run our Smart Node software. They feature custom background processes that allow them to communicate with Rocket Pool’s smart contracts, and just as importantly, provide the network consensus required by the beacon chain.

Any user can run one of these smart nodes and stake their own ETH fee-free if they have the minimum 16 ETH required. For providing the Rocket Pool network with a smart node, the user also receives extra rewards from the network on top of the rewards they earn staking their own ETH.

Minipools Validators are another smart contract, but these are worth defining on their own due to being such a key aspect of Rocket Pool. These are smart contracts that are created by node operators who deposit 16 ETH on their node. When they do this, their minipool contract receives 16 ETH in deposits from users who just want to stake but not run a node. When this contract contains a total of 32 ETH, that amount is sent to begin staking and at the same time a new validator is created on the node which performs the consensus duties for that deposit to earn those staking rewards, neat!

View the visual guide below to get a glimpse of how these components work together in the Rocket Pool network.

What tokens does Rocket Pool use?

RPL — Rocket Pool Protocol Token

RPL is the primary protocol token and can be staked on a Rocket Pool node if you wish to provide the network with an additional security promise. It is not required to run a smart node or as a user to stake ETH on the Rocket Pool network.

There is some more information here: How is the RPL token used?

rETH — Rocket Pool Staking Deposit Token

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.

This token does not need to be locked within the network and it can be traded, sold or held as the user desires. It also importantly provides Rocket Pool users with liquidity over Phase 0 and 1 of the ETH2 rollout in which any staking deposit is locked until Phase 2, which does not have any set date as yet on the ETH2 rollout map.

When smart contracts are natively enabled on ETH2 during Phase 2, a smart contract will be deployed that will allow users with the rETH token to burn it for ETH.

Who‘s making it’?

Rocket Pool was originally started in late 2016 by David Rugendyke, a senior developer with over 18 years commercial experience and a computer science background.

In May 2017, an alpha version of the product was released. A vibrant community started to form and the team began expanding.

Today there is a great team working on Rocket Pool passionately alongside a fantastic community. Both have helped Rocket Pool run two public betas with over 50,000 ETH (testnet) staked and hundreds of users participating over the last 1–2 years.

With Ethereum 2.0 on the horizon, Rocket Pool is aligning its battle-tested platform to begin staking as a decentralised network.