Software might be eating the world, but for most people spreadsheets remain the only way to truly make computers work for them

Lido

SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 22 of 26. VI. CONSENSYS ALSO ACTS AS A BROKER WITH RESPECT TO THE LIDO AND ROCKET POOL INVESTMENT CONTRACTS. 324. Through its MetaMask Staking program, Consensys also acts as a broker by effecting transactions in the Lido and Rocket Pool investment contracts for the account of others. 325. As alleged above, Consensys solicits potential investors, holds itself out as a place to buy and sell the investment contracts, and recommends which of the two investment contracts will offer the highest rewards. 326. Consensys then effects the transaction on the investor’s behalf. 327. Specifically, as noted, Consensys through the MetaMask Staking software handles the investor’s assets by removing the investor’s ETH from the investor’s MetaMask wallet and transferring it to the MM Staking Router Smart Contract, which, in turn, transfers it to the Lido or Rocket Pool proxy smart contract. 328. Finally, Consensys’s software, transfers the acquired token—stETH or rETH—into the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 22 of 26. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 22 of 26. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here VI. CONSENSYS ALSO ACTS AS A BROKER WITH RESPECT TO THE LIDO AND ROCKET POOL INVESTMENT CONTRACTS. 324. Through its MetaMask Staking program, Consensys also acts as a broker by effecting transactions in the Lido and Rocket Pool investment contracts for the account of others. 325. As alleged above, Consensys solicits potential investors, holds itself out as a place to buy and sell the investment contracts, and recommends which of the two investment contracts will offer the highest rewards. 326. Consensys then effects the transaction on the investor’s behalf. 327. Specifically, as noted, Consensys through the MetaMask Staking software handles the investor’s assets by removing the investor’s ETH from the investor’s MetaMask wallet and transferring it to the MM Staking Router Smart Contract, which, in turn, transfers it to the Lido or Rocket Pool proxy smart contract. 328. Finally, Consensys’s software, transfers the acquired token—stETH or rETH—into the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. storage.courtlistener.com

SEC Targets Consensys for Brokerage Activities in Lido and Rocket Pool Investments

SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 24 of 26. SECOND CLAIM FOR RELIEF - Violations of Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c) 332. The Commission re-alleges and incorporates by reference here the allegations in paragraphs 1 through 331. 333. By virtue of the foregoing, Consensys, through its offers and sales of the Lido and Rocket Pool staking program investment contracts, directly and indirectly: (a) without a registration statement in effect as to those securities, (1) made use of means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or of the mails to sell securities through the use or medium of any prospectus or otherwise, and (2) carried or caused to be carried through the mails or in interstate commerce, by any means or instruments of transportation, securities for the purpose of sale or for delivery after sale; and (b) made use of means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or of the mails to offer to sell or offer to buy, through the use or medium of a prospectus or otherwise, securities as to which no registration statement had been filed. 334. By reason of the conduct described above, Consensys violated, is violating, and, unless enjoined, will continue to violate Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c) [15 U.S.C. §§ 77e(a) and 77e(c)]. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 24 of 26. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 24 of 26. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here SECOND CLAIM FOR RELIEF - Violations of Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c) 332. The Commission re-alleges and incorporates by reference here the allegations in paragraphs 1 through 331. 333. By virtue of the foregoing, Consensys, through its offers and sales of the Lido and Rocket Pool staking program investment contracts, directly and indirectly: (a) without a registration statement in effect as to those securities, (1) made use of means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or of the mails to sell securities through the use or medium of any prospectus or otherwise, and (2) carried or caused to be carried through the mails or in interstate commerce, by any means or instruments of transportation, securities for the purpose of sale or for delivery after sale; and (b) made use of means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or of the mails to offer to sell or offer to buy, through the use or medium of a prospectus or otherwise, securities as to which no registration statement had been filed. 334. By reason of the conduct described above, Consensys violated, is violating, and, unless enjoined, will continue to violate Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c) [15 U.S.C. §§ 77e(a) and 77e(c)]. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. storage.courtlistener.com

Consensys in Regulatory Crosshairs Over Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contract Sales

SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 20 of 26. C. Consensys—through MetaMask Staking—Offers and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts. i. Through MetaMask Staking, Consensys Promotes, Offers, and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Its Users. 286. On January 13, 2023, Consensys publicly announced the release of a program called MetaMask Staking. 287. Consensys created MetaMask Staking to offer and sell the Lido and Rocket Pool staking program investment contracts to investors. 288. The January 13 announcement stated: “MetaMask Staking allows you to engage in liquid staking with two prominent providers, Lido and Rocket Pool, where by you can deposit your ETH and receive a token representing the value of your stake in return.” 289. It called MetaMask Staking “an easy and convenient way to stake ETH.” 290. On January 13, 2023, Consensys posted on the MetaMask Twitter account: “We are extremely happy to announce that you can now stake ETH with Lido or Rocket Pool through the [MetaMask] Portfolio Dapp.” This post included an image advertising “5.22% rewards” with Lido and “4.59% rewards” with Rocket Pool—highlighting the former as the “Highest rewards.” 291. On May 16, 2023, Consensys posted on the MetaMask Twitter account: “[U]sers can now stake and withdraw ETH directly from our liquid staking providers, Rocket Pool and Lido.” And “Get started here,” pointing to a link to the MetaMask portfolio website. 292. In promotional materials, Consensys claimed that MetaMask Staking would make it easier for individual holders of ETH to participate in staking. 293. Specifically, in its January 13, 2023, announcement on its website, Consensys stated: “[S]taking can be a convoluted and complicated process for end-users. MetaMask Staking will offer an easy-to-understand and trusted entry point for users interested in staking. Through this new feature, users can compare the rewards rate, network control, and popularity of different liquid staking providers and choose the one they want to stake with.” ii. Consensys’s MetaMask Staking User Interface. 294. To use MetaMask Staking, investors must have ETH in their MetaMask Wallet. 295. First, from the browser extension or mobile app, the investor clicks on “Stake,” or “Staking.” They are then taken to the MetaMask Portfolio site, where they can then choose “ETH.” 296. At this point, Consensys’s graphical interface presents the investor with two options: Lido and Rocket Pool. 298. If either Lido or Rocket Pool is at or near capacity, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software disables the ability to stake with that program. 299. In any event, an investor can choose either the Lido or Rocket Pool staking program by clicking “Stake.” 300. On the following screen, an investor can input the number of ETH that they would like to invest in one of the staking program investment contracts and click “review.” 301. At that point, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software shows the investor a screen with the number of the staking pool tokens they will receive in return, their “estimated rewards,” and the “estimated gas fee.” 302. If the investor wishes to proceed with their request to invest in the staking program investment contract, the investor clicks “confirm.” 303. If MetaMask Staking successfully completes the transaction, the investor will see a screen that says, “Transaction Complete.” iii. Consensys Offers and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Investors. 304. Accordingly, Consensys offers and sells the Lido and Rocket Pool investment contracts to investors through the MetaMask Staking platform. 305. Consensys makes this process appear simple and easy to non-technical investors, while performing the technical series of actions necessary to transfer the investor’s ETH to Lido or Rocket Pool and transfer stETH or rETH to the investor in return. 306. When the investor clicks “confirm,” this signals the MetaMask Staking software to take the steps necessary to exchange the investor’s ETH for rETH or stETH. Specifically, Consensys has programed MetaMask Staking software to take the steps described below. 307. First, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software reads the private key associated with the ETH in the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. 308. Second, using this key, the software creates a blockchain transaction and transfers the investor’s ETH from the investor’s MetaMask Wallet into a smart contract called the MetaMask Staking Aggregator Router Smart Contract (the “MM Staking Router Smart Contract”). 309. The MM Staking Router Smart Contract has its own Ethereum blockchain address. 310. The investor has no control over the MM Staking Router Smart Contract. 311. The MM Staking Router Smart Contract address temporarily holds the investor’s ETH. 312. Although Consensys has programmed its MetaMask Staking software so that Consensys can take a fee for each transaction, Consensys currently sets the fee variable at zero (i.e., it does not take a fee at this time). 313. Consensys could, however, change the software at any time to assess a fee, in which case the amount of the fee would be diverted from the MM Staking Router Smart Contract into a blockchain address designated by Consensys. 314. Third, Consensys’s software transfers the investor’s ETH from the MM Staking Router Smart Contract to the Lido or Rocket Pool Proxy smart contract (deployed by Lido and Rocket Pool, respectively). 315. These Proxy smart contracts mint stETH or rETH, respectively, upon receiving a deposit of ETH, and, if the MM Staking Router Smart Contract sends ETH to the Proxy smart contracts, the Proxy smart contracts will transfer newly minted stETH or rETH, respectively, to the MM Staking Router Smart Contract. 316. Fourth, the MM Staking Router Smart Contract transfers the stETH or rETH, as the case may be, to the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. 317. As of March 11, 2024, investors had invested 100,252 ETH in the Lido staking program through MetaMask Staking and 8,375 ETH in the Rocket Pool staking program through MetaMask Staking. 318. As of March 11, 2024, Consensys, through MetaMask Staking, offered and sold the Lido staking program to 32,449 unique blockchain addresses and offered and sold the Rocket Pool staking programs to 2,215 unique blockchain addresses. 319. For its part, Lido embraced MetaMask Staking as a platform through which its staking program would be offered and sold. 320. On January 17, 2023, Lido announced on its blog that “Ethereum staking with Lido is now live on MetaMask! Stake your ETH on MetaMask to earn yield and secure the Ethereum network from the comfort of your wallet.” 321. Moreover, a former Lido employee testified that “in terms of a distribution channel [Consensys’s MetaMask was] a very highly valued target.” 322. Accordingly, by the conduct described above, Consensys offered and sold, and continues to offer and sell, investment contracts for Lido and Rocket Pool, participating directly in the distribution of securities from the issuers—Lido and Rocket Pool—to the investor. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 20 of 26. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 20 of 26. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here C. Consensys—through MetaMask Staking—Offers and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts. i. Through MetaMask Staking, Consensys Promotes, Offers, and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Its Users. i. Through MetaMask Staking, Consensys Promotes, Offers, and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Its Users. 286. On January 13, 2023, Consensys publicly announced the release of a program called MetaMask Staking. 287. Consensys created MetaMask Staking to offer and sell the Lido and Rocket Pool staking program investment contracts to investors. 288. The January 13 announcement stated: “MetaMask Staking allows you to engage in liquid staking with two prominent providers, Lido and Rocket Pool, where by you can deposit your ETH and receive a token representing the value of your stake in return.” 289. It called MetaMask Staking “an easy and convenient way to stake ETH.” 290. On January 13, 2023, Consensys posted on the MetaMask Twitter account: “We are extremely happy to announce that you can now stake ETH with Lido or Rocket Pool through the [MetaMask] Portfolio Dapp.” This post included an image advertising “5.22% rewards” with Lido and “4.59% rewards” with Rocket Pool—highlighting the former as the “Highest rewards.” 291. On May 16, 2023, Consensys posted on the MetaMask Twitter account: “[U]sers can now stake and withdraw ETH directly from our liquid staking providers, Rocket Pool and Lido.” And “Get started here,” pointing to a link to the MetaMask portfolio website. 292. In promotional materials, Consensys claimed that MetaMask Staking would make it easier for individual holders of ETH to participate in staking. 293. Specifically, in its January 13, 2023, announcement on its website, Consensys stated: “[S]taking can be a convoluted and complicated process for end-users. MetaMask Staking will offer an easy-to-understand and trusted entry point for users interested in staking. Through this new feature, users can compare the rewards rate, network control, and popularity of different liquid staking providers and choose the one they want to stake with.” ii. Consensys’s MetaMask Staking User Interface. ii. Consensys’s MetaMask Staking User Interface. 294. To use MetaMask Staking, investors must have ETH in their MetaMask Wallet. 295. First, from the browser extension or mobile app, the investor clicks on “Stake,” or “Staking.” They are then taken to the MetaMask Portfolio site, where they can then choose “ETH.” 296. At this point, Consensys’s graphical interface presents the investor with two options: Lido and Rocket Pool. 298. If either Lido or Rocket Pool is at or near capacity, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software disables the ability to stake with that program. 299. In any event, an investor can choose either the Lido or Rocket Pool staking program by clicking “Stake.” 300. On the following screen, an investor can input the number of ETH that they would like to invest in one of the staking program investment contracts and click “review.” 301. At that point, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software shows the investor a screen with the number of the staking pool tokens they will receive in return, their “estimated rewards,” and the “estimated gas fee.” 302. If the investor wishes to proceed with their request to invest in the staking program investment contract, the investor clicks “confirm.” 303. If MetaMask Staking successfully completes the transaction, the investor will see a screen that says, “Transaction Complete.” iii. Consensys Offers and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Investors. iii. Consensys Offers and Sells the Lido and Rocket Pool Investment Contracts To Investors. 304. Accordingly, Consensys offers and sells the Lido and Rocket Pool investment contracts to investors through the MetaMask Staking platform. 305. Consensys makes this process appear simple and easy to non-technical investors, while performing the technical series of actions necessary to transfer the investor’s ETH to Lido or Rocket Pool and transfer stETH or rETH to the investor in return. 306. When the investor clicks “confirm,” this signals the MetaMask Staking software to take the steps necessary to exchange the investor’s ETH for rETH or stETH. Specifically, Consensys has programed MetaMask Staking software to take the steps described below. 307. First, Consensys’s MetaMask Staking software reads the private key associated with the ETH in the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. 308. Second, using this key, the software creates a blockchain transaction and transfers the investor’s ETH from the investor’s MetaMask Wallet into a smart contract called the MetaMask Staking Aggregator Router Smart Contract (the “MM Staking Router Smart Contract”). 309. The MM Staking Router Smart Contract has its own Ethereum blockchain address. 310. The investor has no control over the MM Staking Router Smart Contract. 311. The MM Staking Router Smart Contract address temporarily holds the investor’s ETH. 312. Although Consensys has programmed its MetaMask Staking software so that Consensys can take a fee for each transaction, Consensys currently sets the fee variable at zero (i.e., it does not take a fee at this time). 313. Consensys could, however, change the software at any time to assess a fee, in which case the amount of the fee would be diverted from the MM Staking Router Smart Contract into a blockchain address designated by Consensys. 314. Third, Consensys’s software transfers the investor’s ETH from the MM Staking Router Smart Contract to the Lido or Rocket Pool Proxy smart contract (deployed by Lido and Rocket Pool, respectively). 315. These Proxy smart contracts mint stETH or rETH, respectively, upon receiving a deposit of ETH, and, if the MM Staking Router Smart Contract sends ETH to the Proxy smart contracts, the Proxy smart contracts will transfer newly minted stETH or rETH, respectively, to the MM Staking Router Smart Contract. 316. Fourth, the MM Staking Router Smart Contract transfers the stETH or rETH, as the case may be, to the investor’s MetaMask Wallet. 317. As of March 11, 2024, investors had invested 100,252 ETH in the Lido staking program through MetaMask Staking and 8,375 ETH in the Rocket Pool staking program through MetaMask Staking. 318. As of March 11, 2024, Consensys, through MetaMask Staking, offered and sold the Lido staking program to 32,449 unique blockchain addresses and offered and sold the Rocket Pool staking programs to 2,215 unique blockchain addresses. 319. For its part, Lido embraced MetaMask Staking as a platform through which its staking program would be offered and sold. 320. On January 17, 2023, Lido announced on its blog that “Ethereum staking with Lido is now live on MetaMask! Stake your ETH on MetaMask to earn yield and secure the Ethereum network from the comfort of your wallet.” 321. Moreover, a former Lido employee testified that “in terms of a distribution channel [Consensys’s MetaMask was] a very highly valued target.” 322. Accordingly, by the conduct described above, Consensys offered and sold, and continues to offer and sell, investment contracts for Lido and Rocket Pool, participating directly in the distribution of securities from the issuers—Lido and Rocket Pool—to the investor. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. storage.courtlistener.com

MetaMask Staking Faces SEC Scrutiny Over Lido and Rocket Pool Offerings

মেটামাস্ক স্টেকিং লিডো এবং রকেট পুল অফারগুলির উপর এসইসি স্ক্রুটিনির মুখোমুখি হয়

MetaMask Staking steht wegen Lido- und Rocket Pool-Angeboten unter Beobachtung der SEC

MetaMask Stake se enfrenta al escrutinio de la SEC por las ofertas de Lido y Rocket Pool

MetaMask Staking fait l'objet d'un examen minutieux par la SEC sur les offres de Lido et de Rocket Pool

मेटामास्क स्टेकिंग को लीडो और रॉकेट पूल ऑफरिंग पर SEC जांच का सामना करना पड़ रहा है

MetaMask ステーキング、Lido および Rocket Pool の提供に関して SEC の監視に直面

MetaMask 스테이킹, Lido 및 로켓 풀 제공에 대한 SEC 조사에 직면

MetaMask Staking enfrenta escrutínio da SEC sobre ofertas de Lido e Rocket Pool

Стейкинг MetaMask подвергается проверке SEC в отношении предложений Lido и Rocket Pool

MetaMask Staking, Lido ve Roket Havuzu Teklifleri Üzerinden SEC İncelemesiyle Karşı Karşıya

MetaMask Stake phải đối mặt với sự giám sát của SEC đối với các dịch vụ Lido và Rocket Pool

MetaMask Staking 因 Lido 和 Rocket Pool 发行面临美国证券交易委员会的审查

SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 19 of 26. B. Liquid Staking Pool Providers: Lido and Rocket Pool 238. Lido and Rocket Pool have each created and maintained respective staking programs, designed to capture the staking rewards described above. 239. Lido and Rocket Pool each call their program a “liquid staking” program because— as described below—investors are issued a tradable token in exchange for depositing funds into the program. This token represents the investor’s interest in the program. The token issued in exchange is referred to as a “liquid staking token” or “LST” and the LST can be traded on the secondary market. 240. In Lido, the LST is called stETH; in Rocket Pool, the LST is called rETH. 241. The amount of LST an investor receives is proportional to the amount of ETH they deposit. 242. These staking programs allow investors to both obtain the rewards of staking and also purportedly retain the ability to redeem the value of their investment at any time. i. The Lido Staking Program Is An Investment Contract. 243. Lido launched its liquid staking platform in December 2020. 244. To participate, investors deposit ETH with Lido. 245. In return, Lido issues the investor another crypto asset, “stETH,” representing the investor’s pro rata interest in Lido’s staking program, including the investor’s original deposit of ETH plus any accumulated returns. 246. Lido then uses investors’ deposited ETH in the Ethereum consensus mechanism to earn staking rewards—the financial returns for investors. 247. Specifically, Lido pools the ETH deposited by investors into a Lido smart contract, which initiates the creation of a validator by depositing a 32 ETH bundle to the Ethereum validator deposit contract. 248. As of June 25, 2024, over 28% of all staked ETH on Ethereum is staked in Lido’s staking program. 249. Lido takes, as a fee, 10% of the staking rewards earned. 250. The remaining rewards are accrued, pro rata, by stETH token holders. 251. Lido markets its staking program as an investment opportunity. 252. Lido also leads investors to reasonably expect that investors’ profits will come from Lido’s efforts. 253. According to Lido’s website, from December 2020 to February 2024, Lido’s staking program returned an annualized percentage gain of 3% to 9%. 254. In a blog post dated December 28, 2020, Lido stated: “Lido allows users to stake any amount of ETH – without the need to maintain complex infrastructure.” 255. From at least June 2021 to June 2024, in a “Help” article on its website, Lido stated that staking “requires expert knowledge and complex and costly infrastructure” and that through Lido “users can eliminate these inconveniences.” 256. Lido claimed in an October 2020 document posted to its website that it is “more profitable” than other staking pool providers because of its fee model and the quality of its node operators. 257. From at least February 2023 to June 2024, another “Help” article on Lido’s website claims to allocate investors’ staked ETH across multiple, high-quality validator node operators (that is, participants in the Ethereum network consensus mechanism), minimizing the risks associated with staking ETH. 258. In the same Help article, Lido states that it elects “professional and reputable node operators” and that the penalty and slashing risks are reduced “given the quality of the Lido validator set and its proven track record.” 259. In short, Lido purportedly offers investors a “simplified participation in staking”— deploying its resources and expertise to achieve staking rewards that individual investors typically would not be able to achieve on their own. 260. The holder of any stETH—whether issued directly from Lido or purchased in the secondary market—has the right to deliver the stETH to Lido to get back the pro-rata staked ETH plus accrued rewards. 261. Lido treats all investors’ deposited ETH as fungible. It does not purport to segregate investor funds. 262. In light of the above, Lido offered and sold its staking program as an investment contract. ii. The Rocket Pool Staking Program Is An Investment Contract 263. Rocket Pool launched its platform in October 2021. 264. To participate, investors deposit ETH with Rocket Pool. 265. In return, Rocket Pool issues another crypto asset, “rETH,” representing the investor’s pro rata interest in Rocket Pool’s staking program, including the investor’s original deposit of ETH plus any accumulated returns. 266. Rocket Pool then uses investors’ deposited ETH in the Ethereum consensus mechanism to earn staking rewards—the financial returns for investors. 267. Specifically, Rocket Pool pools the ETH deposited by investors into a Rocket Pool smart contract, which initiates the creation of a validator by depositing a 32-ETH bundle to the Ethereum validator deposit contract. 268. Rocket Pool takes a 0.05% fee of the staking rewards it earns. 269. The remaining staking rewards accrue, pro-rata, to investors. 270. Rocket Pool also markets its staking program as an investment opportunity. 271. According to Rocket Pool’s website, rETH “accrues value over time.” 272. Rocket Pool also leads investors to reasonably expect that investors’ profits will come from the efforts of Rocket Pool. 273. As of June 2024, Rocket Pool advertised on its website an annual percentage return of approximately 3.11%. 274. In an FAQ available on its website, Rocket Pool notes that its staking service makes staking available to investors who might not otherwise have the technical expertise necessary to interact with smart contracts or keep a node running 24/7. 275. Indeed, according to Rocket Pool’s FAQ, its program “removes several high barriers to entry that exist with Proof of Stake on Ethereum.” 276. In a January 22, 2021, Medium Post, Rocket Pool stated that its program was “an easy and permissionless way to engage in staking without needing to run any staking infrastructure or even have 32 ETH.” 277. The Rocket Pool FAQ states that it will “allow anyone to earn rewards on deposits as small as 0.01 ETH.” 278. On its website, Rocket Pool also attempts to differentiate itself from other staking pool providers, claiming that “Rocket Pool is the only staking platform with a perfect score on ethereum.org.” 279. According to Rocket Pool’s website, its protocol is highly secure and its “smart contracts have been extensively audited, multiple times, by some of the best auditors in the Ethereum ecosystem.” 280. Rocket Pool also touts other reasons for investors to stake their ETH with Rocket Pool. 281. In the January 2021 Medium post, Rocket Pool notes that the value of rETH is “protected against node slashing and downtime by several built in insurance mechanisms.” 282. Specifically, Rocket Pool requires individuals that run Rocket Pool validator nodes to put up collateral to protect against losses that may result from penalties and slashing. 283. Rocket Pool’s website states that “every rETH token is exactly the same, you will automatically receive the benefits of staking just by holding the token!” (Emphasis in original.) 284. In light of the above, Rocket Pool offered and sold its staking program as an investment contract. 285. Neither Lido nor Rocket Pool have ever filed registration statements with the SEC for the offer and sale of their respective staking program investment contracts. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 19 of 26. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 19 of 26. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here B. Liquid Staking Pool Providers: Lido and Rocket Pool 238. Lido and Rocket Pool have each created and maintained respective staking programs, designed to capture the staking rewards described above. 239. Lido and Rocket Pool each call their program a “liquid staking” program because— as described below—investors are issued a tradable token in exchange for depositing funds into the program. This token represents the investor’s interest in the program. The token issued in exchange is referred to as a “liquid staking token” or “LST” and the LST can be traded on the secondary market. 240. In Lido, the LST is called stETH; in Rocket Pool, the LST is called rETH. 241. The amount of LST an investor receives is proportional to the amount of ETH they deposit. 242. These staking programs allow investors to both obtain the rewards of staking and also purportedly retain the ability to redeem the value of their investment at any time. i. The Lido Staking Program Is An Investment Contract. i. The Lido Staking Program Is An Investment Contract. 243. Lido launched its liquid staking platform in December 2020. 244. To participate, investors deposit ETH with Lido. 245. In return, Lido issues the investor another crypto asset, “stETH,” representing the investor’s pro rata interest in Lido’s staking program, including the investor’s original deposit of ETH plus any accumulated returns. 246. Lido then uses investors’ deposited ETH in the Ethereum consensus mechanism to earn staking rewards—the financial returns for investors. 247. Specifically, Lido pools the ETH deposited by investors into a Lido smart contract, which initiates the creation of a validator by depositing a 32 ETH bundle to the Ethereum validator deposit contract. 248. As of June 25, 2024, over 28% of all staked ETH on Ethereum is staked in Lido’s staking program. 249. Lido takes, as a fee, 10% of the staking rewards earned. 250. The remaining rewards are accrued, pro rata, by stETH token holders. 251. Lido markets its staking program as an investment opportunity. 252. Lido also leads investors to reasonably expect that investors’ profits will come from Lido’s efforts. 253. According to Lido’s website, from December 2020 to February 2024, Lido’s staking program returned an annualized percentage gain of 3% to 9%. 254. In a blog post dated December 28, 2020, Lido stated: “Lido allows users to stake any amount of ETH – without the need to maintain complex infrastructure.” 255. From at least June 2021 to June 2024, in a “Help” article on its website, Lido stated that staking “requires expert knowledge and complex and costly infrastructure” and that through Lido “users can eliminate these inconveniences.” 256. Lido claimed in an October 2020 document posted to its website that it is “more profitable” than other staking pool providers because of its fee model and the quality of its node operators. 257. From at least February 2023 to June 2024, another “Help” article on Lido’s website claims to allocate investors’ staked ETH across multiple, high-quality validator node operators (that is, participants in the Ethereum network consensus mechanism), minimizing the risks associated with staking ETH. 258. In the same Help article, Lido states that it elects “professional and reputable node operators” and that the penalty and slashing risks are reduced “given the quality of the Lido validator set and its proven track record.” 259. In short, Lido purportedly offers investors a “simplified participation in staking”— deploying its resources and expertise to achieve staking rewards that individual investors typically would not be able to achieve on their own. 260. The holder of any stETH—whether issued directly from Lido or purchased in the secondary market—has the right to deliver the stETH to Lido to get back the pro-rata staked ETH plus accrued rewards. 261. Lido treats all investors’ deposited ETH as fungible. It does not purport to segregate investor funds. 262. In light of the above, Lido offered and sold its staking program as an investment contract. ii. The Rocket Pool Staking Program Is An Investment Contract ii. The Rocket Pool Staking Program Is An Investment Contract 263. Rocket Pool launched its platform in October 2021. 264. To participate, investors deposit ETH with Rocket Pool. 265. In return, Rocket Pool issues another crypto asset, “rETH,” representing the investor’s pro rata interest in Rocket Pool’s staking program, including the investor’s original deposit of ETH plus any accumulated returns. 266. Rocket Pool then uses investors’ deposited ETH in the Ethereum consensus mechanism to earn staking rewards—the financial returns for investors. 267. Specifically, Rocket Pool pools the ETH deposited by investors into a Rocket Pool smart contract, which initiates the creation of a validator by depositing a 32-ETH bundle to the Ethereum validator deposit contract. 268. Rocket Pool takes a 0.05% fee of the staking rewards it earns. 269. The remaining staking rewards accrue, pro-rata, to investors. 270. Rocket Pool also markets its staking program as an investment opportunity. 271. According to Rocket Pool’s website, rETH “accrues value over time.” 272. Rocket Pool also leads investors to reasonably expect that investors’ profits will come from the efforts of Rocket Pool. 273. As of June 2024, Rocket Pool advertised on its website an annual percentage return of approximately 3.11%. 274. In an FAQ available on its website, Rocket Pool notes that its staking service makes staking available to investors who might not otherwise have the technical expertise necessary to interact with smart contracts or keep a node running 24/7. 275. Indeed, according to Rocket Pool’s FAQ, its program “removes several high barriers to entry that exist with Proof of Stake on Ethereum.” 276. In a January 22, 2021, Medium Post, Rocket Pool stated that its program was “an easy and permissionless way to engage in staking without needing to run any staking infrastructure or even have 32 ETH.” 277. The Rocket Pool FAQ states that it will “allow anyone to earn rewards on deposits as small as 0.01 ETH.” 278. On its website, Rocket Pool also attempts to differentiate itself from other staking pool providers, claiming that “Rocket Pool is the only staking platform with a perfect score on ethereum.org.” 279. According to Rocket Pool’s website, its protocol is highly secure and its “smart contracts have been extensively audited, multiple times, by some of the best auditors in the Ethereum ecosystem.” 280. Rocket Pool also touts other reasons for investors to stake their ETH with Rocket Pool. 281. In the January 2021 Medium post, Rocket Pool notes that the value of rETH is “protected against node slashing and downtime by several built in insurance mechanisms.” 282. Specifically, Rocket Pool requires individuals that run Rocket Pool validator nodes to put up collateral to protect against losses that may result from penalties and slashing. 283. Rocket Pool’s website states that “every rETH token is exactly the same, you will automatically receive the benefits of staking just by holding the token!” (Emphasis in original.) automatically receive the benefits of staking just by holding the token!” 284. In light of the above, Rocket Pool offered and sold its staking program as an investment contract. 285. Neither Lido nor Rocket Pool have ever filed registration statements with the SEC for the offer and sale of their respective staking program investment contracts. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. storage.courtlistener.com

Crypto Giants Lido and Rocket Pool Face SEC Scrutiny Over Staking Programs

SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 5 of 26. DEFENDANTS 21. Consensys was founded in 2014. In June 2020, Consensys was incorporated in Delaware. OTHER RELEVANT ENTITIES 22. Lido Finance (“Lido”) is a Cayman Islands company. Lido operates a program for staking on the Ethereum blockchain. Lido launched its staking program in December 2020. 23. Rocket Pool is headquartered in Australia. Rocket Pool also operates a program for staking on the Ethereum blockchain. Rocket Pool launched its staking program in October 2021. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 5 of 26. SEC v. Consensys Software Inc. Court Filing, retrieved on June 28, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 5 of 26. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here DEFENDANTS 21. Consensys was founded in 2014. In June 2020, Consensys was incorporated in Delaware. OTHER RELEVANT ENTITIES 22. Lido Finance (“Lido”) is a Cayman Islands company. Lido operates a program for staking on the Ethereum blockchain. Lido launched its staking program in December 2020. Lido Finance (“Lido”) 23. Rocket Pool is headquartered in Australia. Rocket Pool also operates a program for staking on the Ethereum blockchain. Rocket Pool launched its staking program in October 2021. Rocket Pool Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on June 28, 2024, storage.courtlistener.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. storage.courtlistener.com

Major Crypto Players Consensys, Lido, and Rocket Pool Under SEC Scrutiny

Let’s imagine you need access to the real-time data of some smart contracts on Ethereum (or Polygon, BSC, etc.) like Uniswap or even PEPE coin to analyze its data using the standard data scientist/analyst tools: Python, Pandas, Matplotlib, etc. In this tutorial, I’ll show you more sophisticated data access tools that are more like a surgical scalpel (The Graph subgraphs) than a well-known Swiss knife (RPC node access) or hammer (ready-to-use APIs). I hope my metaphors don’t scare you 😅. There are some different methods how to access the data on Ethereum: Using RPC-node commands like to get the low-level block information, then accessing smart contract data via libraries like . It allows you to get the data block by block and then collect it in your own database or CSV file. This way is not really fast, and parsing popular smart contract data using this way usually takes years. getBlockByNumber web3.py Using some data analytics providers like Dune which can help you with some popular smart contract data, but it is not really real-time. The latency can be about several minutes. Using some ready-to-use APIs like NFT API/Token API/DeFi API. And it can be an excellent option because usually, the latency is low. The only problem that you can face is that the data you need is not available. For instance, not all variables can be available as historical time series. What if you still want to have real-time data of a smart contract, but are not satisfied by previous solutions, because you want all: you want low-latency data (the data is always up-to-date right after a new block has been mined) you need a custom slice of data that is not available on any ready-to-use API you don’t want to hassle with manual processing data block by block along with processing block reorganizations This is the best use case for subgraphs by The Graph. Essentially, The Graph is a decentralized network to access smart contract data in a decentralized way paying the price for requests in GRT tokens. But the underlying technology called “subgraphs” allows you to transform your simple description of what variables need to be saved (for real-time access) into the production-grade ETL pipeline which Extract data from the blockchain Saves it into the database Making this data accessible via GraphQL interface Updates the data after each new block is mined on the network Automatically process the chain reorganizations This is a big deal. You don’t need to be a highly qualified data engineer experienced in EVM-compatible blockchains to set up the entire workflow. But let’s start with something ready-to-use. What if somebody has already developed a subgraph that helps to access the data you need? You can go to The Graph hosted service , find the community subgraph section and try to get the existing subgraphs on the protocol you need. For instance, let’s find a subgraph to access protocol (which allows users to stake their Ethers without limiting the minimum value of 32 ethers, as is usually the case, and apart from it getting the tokens that can be staked again, can you believe this?😅). website Lido Lido protocol is currently top-1 in terms of TVL (Total Value Locked — a metric used to measure the total value of digital assets that are locked or staked in a particular DeFi platform or DApp) according to . DeFiLlama And there it is! The subgraph made by Lido team is here. Let’s go to the subgraph details page. What can we see here? The IPFS CID of this subgraph — it is an internal unique identifier of this subgraph pointing to the manifest of this subgraph on the (peer-to-peer protocol to find a file by hash — this is a critically simplified explanation, but you can figure out how it works for yourself). IPFS Query URL — this is an actual endpoint that we will use in our Python code to access smart contract data. The indicator of a subgraph sync status. When the subgraph is up-to-date you can query the data, but you should understand that deploying a new subgraph you must wait for a while to sync it. During this process, it will show the number of current block under processing. The GraphQL query. Each subgraph has its own data structure (the list of tables with data) that need to be considered when creating a GraphQL query. Generally, GraphQL is pretty easy to learn, but if you are struggling with it you can ask ChatGPT to help with it 🙂. is an example at the end of the article. Here The button which runs the query. The output window. As you can see the GraphQL response is JSON-like structure. A switch that allows you to see the data structure of this subgraph. Let’s get down to business (Let’s uncover our jupyter notebooks🙂). Getting raw data: import pandas as pd
import requests

def run_query(uri, query):
    request = requests.post(uri, json={'query': query}, headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"})
    if request.status_code == 200:
        return request.json()
    else:
        raise Exception(f"Unexpected status code returned: {request.status_code}")

url = "https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/name/lidofinance/lido"
query = """{
  lidoTransfers(first: 50) {
    from
    to
    value
    block
    blockTime
    transactionHash
  }
}"""

result = run_query(url, query) The result variable looks like this: And the last transformation (which is only valid for flat JSON response) creates a dataframe: df = pd.DataFrame(result['data']['lidoTransfers'])
df.head() But how to download all data from the table? With GraphQL there are different options on it, and I am picking the following one. Considering that the blocks are ascending let’s scan from the first block querying by 1000 entities each time (1000 is the limit for the graph-node). query = """{
  lidoTransfers(orderBy: block, orderDirection: asc, first: 1) {
     block
  }
}"""
# here we get the first block number to start with
first_block = int(run_query(url, query)['data']['lidoTransfers'][0]['block'])
current_last_block = 17379510

#query template to make consecutive queries
query_template = """{{
  lidoTransfers(where: {{block_gte: {block_x} }}, orderBy: block, orderDirection: asc, first: 1000) {{
    from
    to
    value
    block
    blockTime
    transactionHash
  }}
}}"""

result = [] # storing the response
offset = first_block # starting from the first found block

while True: 
    query = query_template.format(block_x=offset) # generate the query
    sub_result = run_query(url, query)['data']['lidoTransfers'] # get the data
    if len(sub_result)<=1: # break if finished
        break
    sh = int(sub_result[-1]['block']) - offset # calculate the shift
    offset = int(sub_result[-1]['block']) # calculate the new shift
    result.extend(sub_result) # append
    print(f"{(offset-first_block)/(current_last_block - first_block)* 100:.1f}%, got {len(sub_result)} lines, block shift {sh}" ) #show the log

# convert to the dataframe
df = pd.DataFrame(result) Bear in mind that we do overlapping queries because each time we use the last block number from the query to start the next one with. We do this to avoid missing records due to the possible multiple transactions per block. As we see each query returns 1000 lines, but the block number is shifting by several tens of thousands. It means that not every block contains at least one Lido transaction. An important step here is to get rid of the duplicates that we collected avoiding missing records: As we see, there are 9k+ duplicated lines in the dataframe. Now let’s do some simple EDA. col = "from"
df.groupby(col, as_index=False)\
    .agg({'transactionHash': 'count'})\
    .sort_values('transactionHash', ascending=False)\
    .head(5) If we check the most frequent addresses in the field “from” we find “0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000” address. Usually, it means the issue of new tokens, so we can find a transaction in and check: Etherscan (df[df['from']=='0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000'].iloc[1000].to,\
df[df['from']=='0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000'].iloc[1000].transactionHash,
df[df['from']=='0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000'].iloc[1000].value,) We will see the transaction that has the same “value”: Also, it is interesting to check the most frequent receiver of funds (by the field called “to”): col = "to"
df.groupby(col, as_index=False)\
    .agg({'transactionHash': 'count'})\
    .sort_values('transactionHash', ascending=False)\
    .head(5) The address “0x7f39c581f595b53c5cb19bd0b3f8da6c935e2ca0” can be found on the as Lido: wrapped stETH Token. Etherscan Now let’s see the number of transactions per month: import datetime
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df["blockTime_"] = df["blockTime"].apply(lambda x: datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(int(x)))
df['ym'] = df['blockTime_'].dt.strftime("%Y-%m")
df_time = df.groupby('ym', as_index=False).agg({'transactionHash': 'count'}).sort_values('ym')

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12,8))
ax.plot(df_time['ym'].iloc[:-1], df_time['transactionHash'].iloc[:-1])
plt.xticks(rotation=45)
plt.xlabel('month')
plt.ylabel('number of transactions')
plt.grid()
plt.show() The number of transactions per month is growing over the years constantly! You can continue your investigation going forward with the other fields or make other queries to different tables on the same subgraph: What else you can do with subgraphs , if you need to access the data of (or the data is not enough) you can easily write your own subgraph using these tutorials: Firstly any other smart contract that has no subgraph yet How to access the Tornado Cash data easily using The Graph’s subgraphs How to access transactions of PEPE ($PEPE) coin using The Graph subgraphs and ChatGPT prompts Indexing Uniswap data with subgraphs A beginner’s guide to getting started with The Graph f you want to become an advanced subgraphs developer, consider these deep-diving tutorials: Secodly, i Explaining Subgraph schemas Debugging subgraphs with a local Graph Node Fetching subgraph data using javascript , if you are going to use subgraphs real-time data in your production application, consider using production grade subgraphs hostings such as . Thirdly Chainstack Subgraphs Feel free to ask any questions in comments or in DM 🙂 Also published . here

Accessing Real-time Smart Contract Data From Python Code (Using Lido Contract as an Example)

Leading brand consultant and esteemed author of Designing Brand Identity, Alina Wheeler, is famously quoted as saying “Design is intelligence made visible”. This statement truly captures the multifaceted world of design, which must create synergy between business goals, financial margins, and the overall UX. Lidong Liu is an experienced product designer who has combined the talent of a natural eye with a deep understanding of technology in order to showcase the brilliance of his projects. The first spark of inspiration Lidong Liu has always had a passion for music and, at the age of eight, he got his first personal music player – an Apple Shuffle. As he began using the device, he noticed how easily songs could be uploaded and noted the ability for both sequential and random playing order. Although it was fundamentally a simple concept, he was fascinated by the design of this product that took care of its user’s needs by appropriately leveraging modern technology. Not only that, it did so without placing any burden on the user to understand the technology behind its seamless operations. It was then that Liu started to really consider and study the connection between people and technology. From this spark of inspiration, he began to experiment with own unique creations. During his time in secondary school, Liu designed and produced a few short films and also a handful of websites. Many of his products won recognition and awards at his school, and he was further motivated after seeing the joy and excitement that his creations brought to the broader online community. He had no doubt that this was his path in life and decided to pursue his passion post-secondary, earning his B.E. in Software Engineering from Shanghai’s Tongji University. Making his mark in the industry before graduation During his time at Tongji, Liu made some great connections and began playing with business ideas and products. Interestingly, music was once again at the core of his inspiration – this time for an app that he designed and developed with two friends, which would make big waves in China. Zuiyan was officially launched in 2017. The music mobile app was created to showcase Beijing Opera in a modern and engaging format. Liu initially touched on the concept thanks to his grandmother who, like many others in her generation, loves to watch and perform the art form as a primary source of entertainment. He had spoken with his grandmother about her grief around this dwindling element of her cultural heritage, as she noticed the younger generations were not interested in Beijing Opera. After contemplating what he could do to reinvigorate the interest of his people, Liu decided to use cartoon illustrations, audio clips, and state-of-the-art Augmented Reality techniques to present live Beijing Opera in people’s hands – anytime and anywhere. The app also boasted a highly-engaging feature that allowed users to recreate and retell the stories of this traditional art form, based on their own understanding, to share with others. Thanks to its unique presentation and innovative techniques, Zuiyan took home the first place prize from the Mobile Application Innovation Contest, beating out over 400 other teams from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. As the competition was organized by the Ministry of Education of China and Apple, the app was then featured on the Apple App Store in 2018 and hit over 20K downloads in just three months. It was such a hit that several major media platforms in China – the likes of China Daily, Tencent, Sohu, etc. – reported about Liu and his app. Noticing the impact of his work, Apple then invited Liu to the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference for an all-expenses-paid opportunity to showcase his product in front of a notable group of attendees, including Isabel Ge Mahe, Apple’s Vice President and Managing Director of Greater China. The event also led to the mention of Liu as an innovative developer and influencer in the industry in Apple’s China corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. Although he was only on the brink of truly stepping into his career, Liu was already gaining an impressive reputation. Music is his muse After graduation, Lidong Liu was fortunate to explore the field with a few design internships, first in China and then in the US. Interning in California with the Arm Treasure Data product, a tool for data engineering and marketing from SoftBank, gave Liu the opportunity to really dive into complex and enterprise-facing design. He worked with Fortune 500 clients and Global 2000 companies like LG, Nintendo, and Warner Bros. Even during the short time that he was with Arm, Liu’s unique design perspectives added significant value to the company and a few months later, the product that he contributed to won the Frost & Sullivan award for Global Customer Data Platform Company of the Year. Over the next couple of years, Liu’s life saw massive expansion. He was awarded maximum scholarships to complete his Master of Science degree in Human-Computer Interactions at Indiana University. From there, he was elated to circle back around to his passion for music and, in June of 2020, he began working as a product designer for the world-renowned platform, Spotify. Liu has led several projects with Spotify that have not only improved the UX and added millions of dollars in revenue to the company, but that have also helped artists and labels to profit through the support of their fans and listeners. He has brought his design talents to the user authorization system, helping to ensure its understandability, efficiency and ease of use in different user situations. He led the core design of the customer support platform, which optimizes multiple internal Spotify tools of the listener app with Spotify for Artists, and other components, to provide a better and more consistent system experience. According to Liu, the most rewarding work he’s done with the company is in particular with Spotify for Artists, as he holds such deep respect for the work of musicians. In this branch of the company, he led the core design of platform capabilities for the paid Marquee ads – a marketing campaign tool for music promotion. He also drove the core design of 2-step verification user onboarding and education, ensuring that the new feature would be well adopted by all Spotify for Artist users, while ensuring the protection of their account security, such as their sensitive music data reports, public profiles, and payment information. Finally, as the current design owner of the overall analytics experience, Liu is optimizing the holistic navigation experience for data consumption and social sharing. The improvements will allow artists and labels to gather more accurate and timely insights based on their tasks and data maturity. In looking to the future of his work at Spotify, Liu explains: “Helping music creators to succeed has always been my top goal, and I believe improving the music data experience will be my next breakthrough point. The ongoing digital revolution in the music industry brings tremendous opportunities, but it also means that music creators need to collect, consume, and digest more data so that they can better cultivate fandom and generate revenue.” The reality is that the success of an artist in our modern world requires them to use data to learn what people are listening to and how they’re spending their money in the music industry. When the right information is used in the right way, creators can streamline and uniquely personalize the experiences that they offer their tech savvy music fans. This is exactly why, as the largest music streaming service in the world, Spotify plays such a vital role. It contains, by far, the most first-hand user listening data and is capable of feeding it directly back into the industry. In reflection on his own position, Liu shares “Standing at the core of this bottom-up loop, I am a designer who can help to democratize music, ensuring the information is presented and interpreted for the good of both the artists and the fans. In such a dynamic work-stream, there is no once-and-for-all solution, but continuous iterations. Leading the holistic data experience design of Spotify for Artists is [a huge project that] I’m thrilled about. I truly believe that it will be my next milestone of bringing digital innovation to the world of music.” Lidong Liu clearly approaches his design work from a place of deep intelligence. His ability to zoom out, pick up all the dots and details, and then fuze them together into a successful and functional design is unmatched. With Liu, there is no need to sacrifice usability for appearance, or efficiency for cost. He has an incredible talent for manipulating technology to do it all, and for that very reason, the future of this young, yet highly accomplished, product designer is incredibly bright.

Leading Product Designer Lidong Liu Proves Core Of Brilliant Design Is Intelligence Made Visible

I have been professionally involved in DeFi for 8 years (as a researcher, LP and advanced user). Today, I would like to talk about one of the major trends of 2023 - restaking. For this, I will try to go step by step, rather than giving the 1001st description of the general processes, of which there are so many in Google search results. So you have ETH, what's next? Let's imagine you have 1 ETH. Not bad. Is its price increasing? In the medium and long term - yes, but in the short term - not always: What to do? The most conservative strategy in this case is HODL, but in this case, DeFi is not yet in the picture. Liquid Staking The next step is liquid staking. To get straight to the point, Ethereum, like many other projects, is now PoS (Proof-of-Stake), which means? It means validators or other super-nodes receive rewards. Since that's the case, these rewards can be... tokenized, turning them into a separate financial instrument (derivative). This is exactly what Lido, Rocket Pool, and a number of other projects have done (today their total number has exceeded a hundred, although barely 10 are truly active): I always use Lido as an example, but only because they are the largest. If you, like me, prefer more decentralization, then Rocket Pool is the right and precise choice. The APR for stETH today is 3%-3.5% (Lido), but at the beginning of the transition era, it was over 10%: No super-knowledge is needed for liquid staking: Go to the page: stake.lido.fi;
Authorize with your wallet (Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter);
Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH. A few life hacks right away: Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources:

My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering;



Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions:

What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)?



And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3:

centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. So, you have received the long-awaited stETH, and now your yield on ETH is 3% per year or more. Is that a little? Yes, but it's in ETH, and as we remember, it can rise from $0.03 to $4500 or more. And this is our main hope. But can the yield be increased further? Yes, it can! Restaking "This is a new onchain primitive similar to rehypothecation, allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield". So, let's immediately see how this works in practice. We go to kelpdao.xyz and stake the 1 stETH we obtained earlier: And again: Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit: audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent;
Look at APY/APR: that's why you came here;
And then the operation is the same as before: input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). You can also try EtherFI, Renzo protocol and others: it depends more on current rates and your imagination. Life hack: never put 1 to 1. In the sense that if you're going up the ladder of complex derivatives, it's better to go like this: 1 ETH => split into 0.8 & 0.2: leave 0.2 in ETH, and convert 0.8 into stETH; Then divide 0.8 stETH again into 80% and 20% (any slippages, differences in rates, included rewards - keep in parentheses) and so on. Why all this complexity? Because: Protocols get hacked;
Individual pools get hacked too;
Even individual assets. And don't forget to remove unnecessary approvals through scanners or special services like cointool.app. So, we've progressed: From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH;
And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). What's next? Remember that diversification is decentralization and try to allocate 80% of 0.8 (0.64) stETH through various protocols, for example: ETHERfi;
Renzo;
Kelp;
Swell. In total, we get 0.64/4 = 0.16 for each service. But you are free to act as you wish and, by accumulating loans in AAVE, invest not a part of the whole, but the whole plus a part. Is this risky? Yes. But DeFi endures everything. Can you achieve even higher returns? Yes, but first - some more life hacks: Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability;
You can continue using the assets in DeFi, which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it);
Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage: you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. And yet, what about ETH itself: can you do something more to improve profitability? The short answer is yes, but implementing this answer is not as simple as it seems. The magical Pendle In fact, there are several services like this, including Asymetrix, but for brevity, I'll focus on Pendle specifically: especially since it has proven itself quite well in the past year (although everyone has their mishaps). And again - headfirst into practice: On the main page, select the asset you need (initially set the mode to simple: once you understand it, you can start experimenting with YT & PT), check the APR/APY, if it suits you - proceed to its staking page: Carefully and as capable as you can, read the terms and lock your assets: again, the choice of percentage is up to you, but I would recommend (if I could) starting with at least an 80/20 strategy everywhere. That's it, now you've learned how to hedge your bet on a complex derivative. It sounds strange, but it's true. Want more? Well, don't linger and follow the primary source: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy. The position will look something like this: So, from zero, we can pull out approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) in ETH, which is already quite substantial. But that's not all. Take another look at the scheme we've walked through: Conclusion Undoubtedly, the presented scheme can be both simplified and made more complex. Moreover, different services (projects) can be used at different stages. However, the main point is that the described scheme is universal in theory on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is implemented in quite specific practice. If this post sparks interest, I will continue. But for today, that's all from me and Ch33r$! I have been professionally involved in DeFi for 8 years (as a researcher, LP and advanced user). Today, I would like to talk about one of the major trends of 2023 - restaking . For this, I will try to go step by step, rather than giving the 1001st description of the general processes, of which there are so many in Google search results. restaking description So you have ETH, what's next? So you have ETH, what's next? Let's imagine you have 1 ETH. Not bad. Is its price increasing? In the medium and long term - yes , but in the short term - not always: yes but What to do? The most conservative strategy in this case is HODL , but in this case, DeFi is not yet in the picture. What to do? HODL Liquid Staking Liquid Staking The next step is liquid staking . To get straight to the point, Ethereum , like many other projects, is now PoS (Proof-of-Stake), which means? It means validators or other super-nodes receive rewards. Since that's the case, these rewards can be... tokenized , turning them into a separate financial instrument ( derivative ). This is exactly what Lido, Rocket Pool, and a number of other projects have done (today their total number has exceeded a hundred, although barely 10 are truly active): liquid staking Ethereum PoS tokenized derivative I always use Lido as an example, but only because they are the largest. If you, like me, prefer more decentralization, then Rocket Pool is the right and precise choice. The APR for stETH today is 3%-3.5% (Lido), but at the beginning of the transition era, it was over 10%: APR No super-knowledge is needed for liquid staking: Go to the page: stake.lido.fi; Authorize with your wallet (Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter); Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH. Go to the page: stake.lido.fi ; stake.lido.fi Authorize with your wallet ( Metamask or something else - it doesn't matter); Metamask Stake ETH as the base asset and receive a first-order derivative - stETH . stETH A few life hacks right away: Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources:

My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions:

What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3:

centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources: My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here);
The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly;
The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources : Learn to check any asset/project through at least 2-3 sources My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com: you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here); The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com: any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly; The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; My 1st source is pro.similarweb.com : you can quickly check the traffic and when the site became active to avoid obvious scams (you can also add a who-is check here ); pro.similarweb.com here The 2d source is coinmarketcap.com : any aggregator will do, the main thing is that it updates promptly; coinmarketcap.com The 3d source is any search engine without subjective filtering; Always carefully research the economic conditions (DYOR) during your first transactions: What is the base and derivative asset worth?
What is the provider's fee?
What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)?
Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? Always carefully research the economic conditions ( DYOR ) during your first transactions: Always carefully research the economic conditions DYOR What is the base and derivative asset worth? What is the provider's fee? What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)? Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? What is the base and derivative asset worth? What is the provider's fee? What is the gas price (even in cheap networks, failures are not uncommon)? Do the APR/APY figures match the stated ones (you can check on the same aggregators)? And always scroll through the news feed: blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3: centralized intermediary services;
you → the person. And always scroll through the news feed : blockchain solutions are rarely hacked, but DNS attacks, simple phishing sites, and other issues happen much more often, as there are always two vulnerable links in decentralized Web3: And always scroll through the news feed centralized intermediary services; you → the person. centralized intermediary services; you → the person. So, you have received the long-awaited stETH, and now your yield on ETH is 3% per year or more. Is that a little? Yes, but it's in ETH, and as we remember, it can rise from $0.03 to $4500 or more. And this is our main hope . But can the yield be increased further? Yes, it can! hope Restaking Restaking " This is a new onchain primitive similar to rehypothecation, allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield ". So, let's immediately see how this works in practice. We go to kelpdao.xyz and stake the 1 stETH we obtained earlier: This allowing either natively staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to be restaked in return for additional yield kelpdao.xyz And again: Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit: audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent; Look at APY/APR: that's why you came here; And then the operation is the same as before: input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit : audits themselves may not help much, but it's worse when they're absent; Don't be lazy and study the protocol audit Look at APY/APR : that's why you came here; Look at APY/APR And then the operation is the same as before : input the base asset (now stETH) and receive the derivative (rsETH). And then the operation is the same as before You can also try EtherFI , Renzo protocol and others: it depends more on current rates and your imagination. Life hack: never put 1 to 1. In the sense that if you're going up the ladder of complex derivatives, it's better to go like this: 1 ETH => split into 0.8 & 0.2 : leave 0.2 in ETH, and convert 0.8 into stETH; Then divide 0.8 stETH again into 80% and 20% (any slippages, differences in rates, included rewards - keep in parentheses) and so on. EtherFI Renzo protocol Life hack: split into 0.8 & 0.2 Why all this complexity? Because: Why all this complexity? Protocols get hacked; Individual pools get hacked too; Even individual assets. Protocols get hacked; Individual pools get hacked too; Even individual assets. And don't forget to remove unnecessary approvals through scanners or special services like cointool.app . cointool.app So, we've progressed : So, we've progressed From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH; And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). From a hypothetical 0% APR on ETH to 3% in stETH; And then, with the specific implementation of restaking in Kelp DAO - up to 4.28% (don't rush to add percentages, as there are many pitfalls here). 4.28% What's next? What's next? Remember that diversification is decentralization and try to allocate 80% of 0.8 (0.64) stETH through various protocols, for example: ETHERfi; Renzo; Kelp; Swell. ETHERfi; Renzo; Kelp; Swell. In total, we get 0.64/4 = 0.16 for each service. But you are free to act as you wish and, by accumulating loans in AAVE, invest not a part of the whole, but the whole plus a part. Is this risky? Yes. But DeFi endures everything . DeFi endures everything Can you achieve even higher returns? Yes, but first - some more life hacks: Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability; You can continue using the assets in DeFi, which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it); Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage: you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. Don't forget about bonuses (via airdrops ) from EigenLayer and protocols (like Kelp, calculating points for a reason), which also add to your profitability; Don't forget about bonuses airdrops You can continue using the assets in DeFi , which also adds extra income (though no one can guarantee it); You can continue using the assets in DeFi Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage : you can always look for a new network and try to bridge (transfer) your assets - currently possible on Scroll, where different restaking derivatives earn so-called marks. Finally, don't forget about cross-chain arbitrage And yet, what about ETH itself: can you do something more to improve profitability? The short answer is yes, but implementing this answer is not as simple as it seems. The magical Pendle The magical Pendle In fact, there are several services like this, including Asymetrix, but for brevity, I'll focus on Pendle specifically: especially since it has proven itself quite well in the past year (although everyone has their mishaps). And again - headfirst into practice: On the main page, select the asset you need (initially set the mode to simple: once you understand it, you can start experimenting with YT & PT), check the APR/APY, if it suits you - proceed to its staking page: Carefully and as capable as you can, read the terms and lock your assets: again, the choice of percentage is up to you, but I would recommend (if I could) starting with at least an 80/20 strategy everywhere. That's it, now you've learned how to hedge your bet on a complex derivative. It sounds strange, but it's true. Want more? Well, don't linger and follow the primary source: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy . The position will look something like this: pendle.gitbook.io/pendle-academy So, from zero, we can pull out approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) in ETH, which is already quite substantial. But that's not all. Take another look at the scheme we've walked through: approximately 7%-10% annually (in the worst case, 4-7%) Conclusion Conclusion Undoubtedly, the presented scheme can be both simplified and made more complex. Moreover, different services (projects) can be used at different stages. However, the main point is that the described scheme is universal in theory on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is implemented in quite specific practice. If this post sparks interest, I will continue. But for today, that's all from me and Ch33r$! Ch33r$!

LIDO

lido.app

-- employees

Since n.d.

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LIDO

EVERGREEN INDEX #684

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LIDO

lido.app

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

LIDO

EVERGREEN INDEX #684

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