Where we are and what's to come

Source: https://medium.com/rocket-pool/where-we-are-and-whats-to-come-7f5f932e9035

Hello Rocket Poolers! With our mainnet launch on the 9th November 2021, the decentralised protocol has rocketed to become the second largest Ethereum staking provider in just a matter of weeks.

With today’s article, we’ll be outlining the current state of Rocket Pool, a new beta program we’re launching that includes a new staking UI and we’ll also be highlighting some amazing community projects that have sprung up around our mainnet release + more!

This is a pretty decently sized article, so grab a seat + beverage of your choice and we’ll get started.

State of Rocket Pool §

The popularity of a first ever decentralised trustless staking protocol has surprised even us. Since Rocket Pool was designed to be trustless, we had to wait until the beacon chain spec allowed trustless withdrawals via smart contracts, this happened several months after ETH2 staking launched. We then had to undergo months of audits and testing once that feature was locked in.

This meant we launched a good deal later than the majority of current staking services. However the wait was indeed worth it, with the decentralised staking protocol overtaking all other Ethereum staking providers bar one in just a matter of weeks…

Number 2 baby! https://defillama.com/protocols/staking/Ethereum

With that amazing growth, there are also amazing numbers, some of which we’ll throw at you right now.

At the time of writing, the protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has grown to a whopping 118,219 ETH. This includes 82,336 staked ETH and 3,058,145 RPL.

The Network §

Rocket Pool has 744 individual node operators spread across 70 decentralised geographic regions. That’s tremendously more node operators than any other Ethereum staking provider to date.

View the current network map here @ https://stake.rocketpool.net/network

Rocket Pool has deployed 2,584 beacon chain validators (minipools) and is still growing rapidly. In just 2 months Rocket Pool, is almost at 1% of the Ethereum validator share (0.89%).

Rocket Pool is already contributing to client diversity. Due to the way we have designed our smart node software, running a staking node can be done simply and easily with just about any beacon chain client.

Current ETH2 Client Distributions across minipool validators and node operators, determined by proposals

rETH Liquid Staking §

With our liquid staking token rETH, users can enjoy the benefits of staking without needing to run a node.

rETH has accrued value against ETH (from our decentralised network of node operators staking) and is now worth 1.01299 ETH at the time of writing.

rETH is available on many cost-effective L2s as well

rETH has shown to be in very high demand. Many node operators have been able to lock in the maximum commission of 20% on their validators, and continue to do so today. By staking their RPL collateral node operators have also earned almost 1,593 ETH in RPL rewards.

Roadmap §

As seen above, Rocket Pool has had a great start! But what comes next?

Working with our community, we are co-developing a roadmap for the next 12 months. This is a living document that will provide clear direction for the core team and community initiatives.

Key themes include:

• rETH integration with DeFi protocols, wallets, and DeFi trackers
• Node operator reach and onboarding
• The Merge and MEV (big one)
• Leveraging layer 2
• Node operator RPL claim optimisation
• Governance and funding of community initiatives

As a community-driven decentralised protocol, Rocket Pool values its community’s contributions immensely and believes they are a significant advantage. Our community has proven it can deliver content/products/features (based on Rocket Pool) that fulfils community needs.

These include:

• VGR’s staking/node operator dashboard
• The Rocketeers NFT
• Invisible Symbol’s Discord bots
• Rocket Pool Tool
• RocketScan

Partners are also seeing the value of integrating Rocket Pool into their products.

To remain agile, Rocket Pool will leverage support from the community and partners. The Rocket Pool core team will still be core contributors for important elements of Rocket Pool but we will stimulate community contributions through a new grants and bounty program. Rocket Pool has always worked closely with its community of Rocketeers but we hope this will further develop a sense of shared success.

Below is the draft roadmap detailing coming protocol changes and potential grant / bounty opportunities. As we flesh out the grant / bounty program we will provide ways to be involved.

Beta Program §

As we design new changes to the protocol, we’d love people to help us test them out and provide feedback long before they hit a mainnet release. Rocket Pool has high standards and we need your help to keep us that way. With the introduction of our beta program, we hope we can accomplish that.

If you participate, you’ll get to try out the new features across virtually all aspects of Rocket Pool, from the staking UI to smart node stack releases.

We will provide more information about how you can get involved in our Discord.

New Staking UI §

To kickstart the beta program, we’ll be launching a new staking UI which participants will get to test out. Incorporating feedback from our passionate community, we decided to rework the staking UI from the ground up.

The new interface should be familiar to most DeFi users but retains Rocket Pool’s unique character. The rETH exchange rate is predominantly displayed, is shown more intuitively, and includes help text. Transaction cost is now included on the page.

A wallet menu shows all associated balances, including the rETH value denominated in ETH — so that holders can see their balance increasing.

We’ll have this new UI launched with our beta program shortly, all details will be released in our Discord for those who want to give it a go first.

Questions or just say hello! §

Well 16 points to you for making it this far, that was a whopper! If you have mainnet questions, feedback, bug reports or want to know a bit more about us, why not swing by for a chat and say G’day! You can view our website or have a chat with us in our Discord chat room that anyone can join. If chat rooms aren’t your thing, we’re also on Twitter!