The Ethereum price could face some turbulence, as Justin Sun, the founder of Tron (TRX), has unstaked a whopping $209 million from Lido Finance, a liquid decentralized staking platform for Ethereum. Compared to top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), the Ethereum price ...

Ethereum Price Crash Incoming? Tron’s Justin Sun Unstakes $209 Million ETH From Lido Finance

Did you ever wish blockchain development could be as simple as building with LEGO blocks? Qubetics is making that a reality with QubeQode IDE—an all-in-one

Qubetics Presale at $0.013 per Token; Filecoin’s Web3 Vision and Lido stETH's Staking Gains Highlight Market Trends

Lido

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**LONDON, United Kingdom, January 15th, 2025/Chainwire/--Lido Impact Staking(LIS)**officially launches on the 15th of January 2025, and introduces a new approach to sustainable funding for social impact, leveraging Ethereum staking rewards and Lido middleware to create lasting change. With LIS, users can stake ETH, stETH, or wstETH and allocate a percentage of staking rewards to social impact projects of their choice. This innovative model allows individuals, organizations, and DAOs to support causes transparently and perpetually, without ever compromising their original capital. Another feature of Lido Impact Staking is its permissionless framework. Any social impact project can register on the platform. By decentralizing and democratizing philanthropy, LIS paves the way for a new era of accessible, sustainable social impact funding. For more information, users can visit LIS. Rethinking Philanthropy: A Sustainable Model for Impact Traditional philanthropy often operates like a single-use investment, where donors contribute finite resources, later validated through monitoring and evaluation. Lido Impact Staking (LIS) reimagines this approach by enabling users to stake Ether (ETH/stETH/wstETH) and allocate a percentage of staking rewards to impactful, data-driven causes. This innovative model transforms staking returns into a sustainable funding source for social good, allowing donors to support meaningful change without relinquishing their capital. In this new model of philanthropy, blockchain technology enables transparency and trust. At launch, LIS supports two high-impact initiatives: GiveDirectly: focuses on providing direct cash transfers, enabling individuals in poverty to make independent financial decisions and address their needs.
Treedom: Driving reforestation and carbon removal through sustainable tree cultivation, creating environmental and social benefits. These initial projects showcase LIS’s potential to provide enduring funding streams for critical causes, reshaping philanthropy through Ethereum staking. Core Features of Lido Impact Staking Long-Term Social Impact: By leveraging staking rewards, LIS ensures a consistent stream of funding for social impact initiatives, empowering organizations to plan and execute long-term projects with confidence.
Transparency and Trust: Built on Ethereum, LIS offers unparalleled on-chain transparency, allowing donors to track staking rewards and monitor real-world impact through the LIS dashboard, fostering trust and accountability.
Financial Flexibility: Donors maintain full access to their principal Ethereum holdings (ETH/stETH/wstETH), with the freedom to withdraw or reallocate their funds at any time.
Sustainable Giving: The continuous generation of staking rewards creates a self-sustaining model for philanthropy, maximizing the potential for long-term contributions. Positive Potential of Ethereum Staking "We need new financial tools to solve problems that have a new scale. Impact staking changes what it means to be a donor, by not needing them to give away their capital, rather the opportunity cost of some of their staking return” said Jaydeep Korde, a founder of Lido Impact Staking. "Impact staking is a new open source financial tool that creates impact in the real world for real people." About Impact Staking was initially conceived and developed by the team at Launchnodes after Ethereum became a Proof of Stake blockchain. Launchnodes was formed in April 2020 and supports customers globally to solo stake Ethereum and run their own ETH nodes and infrastructure, without ever having to share their keys or give up custody of their ETH. The Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization (LEGO) provided a grant to Launchnodes in 2023, to enable an Impact Staking platform to be created, that leverages Lido's proven, scalable middleware. This resulted in Lido Impact Staking. The LIS team is now engaged with NGOs, governments, charities, family offices, foundations, and other impact causes and donors - all of whom are excited by the potential of Impact Staking as a new and innovative model for philanthropy and driving maximum positive impact. For more information about Lido Impact Staking and how to start staking for social impact, visit impactstake.com or connect with us on social media: Twitter: @impactstake
LinkedIn: ImpactStake Website: impactstake.com Contact Andrei D. Lido Impact Staking social@impactstake.com This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here **LONDON, United Kingdom, January 15th, 2025/Chainwire/--Lido Impact Staking(LIS)**officially launches on the 15th of January 2025, and introduces a new approach to sustainable funding for social impact, leveraging Ethereum staking rewards and Lido middleware to create lasting change. With LIS, users can stake ETH, stETH, or wstETH and allocate a percentage of staking rewards to social impact projects of their choice. This innovative model allows individuals, organizations, and DAOs to support causes transparently and perpetually, without ever compromising their original capital. Another feature of Lido Impact Staking is its permissionless framework. Any social impact project can register on the platform. By decentralizing and democratizing philanthropy, LIS paves the way for a new era of accessible, sustainable social impact funding. For more information, users can visit LIS . LIS LIS Rethinking Philanthropy: A Sustainable Model for Impact Traditional philanthropy often operates like a single-use investment, where donors contribute finite resources, later validated through monitoring and evaluation. Lido Impact Staking (LIS) reimagines this approach by enabling users to stake Ether (ETH/stETH/wstETH) and allocate a percentage of staking rewards to impactful, data-driven causes. This innovative model transforms staking returns into a sustainable funding source for social good, allowing donors to support meaningful change without relinquishing their capital. In this new model of philanthropy, blockchain technology enables transparency and trust. At launch, LIS supports two high-impact initiatives: GiveDirectly: focuses on providing direct cash transfers, enabling individuals in poverty to make independent financial decisions and address their needs. Treedom: Driving reforestation and carbon removal through sustainable tree cultivation, creating environmental and social benefits. GiveDirectly: focuses on providing direct cash transfers, enabling individuals in poverty to make independent financial decisions and address their needs. Treedom: Driving reforestation and carbon removal through sustainable tree cultivation, creating environmental and social benefits. These initial projects showcase LIS’s potential to provide enduring funding streams for critical causes, reshaping philanthropy through Ethereum staking. Core Features of Lido Impact Staking Long-Term Social Impact: By leveraging staking rewards, LIS ensures a consistent stream of funding for social impact initiatives, empowering organizations to plan and execute long-term projects with confidence. Transparency and Trust: Built on Ethereum, LIS offers unparalleled on-chain transparency, allowing donors to track staking rewards and monitor real-world impact through the LIS dashboard, fostering trust and accountability. Financial Flexibility: Donors maintain full access to their principal Ethereum holdings (ETH/stETH/wstETH), with the freedom to withdraw or reallocate their funds at any time. Sustainable Giving: The continuous generation of staking rewards creates a self-sustaining model for philanthropy, maximizing the potential for long-term contributions. Long-Term Social Impact: By leveraging staking rewards, LIS ensures a consistent stream of funding for social impact initiatives, empowering organizations to plan and execute long-term projects with confidence. Transparency and Trust: Built on Ethereum, LIS offers unparalleled on-chain transparency, allowing donors to track staking rewards and monitor real-world impact through the LIS dashboard, fostering trust and accountability. Financial Flexibility: Donors maintain full access to their principal Ethereum holdings (ETH/stETH/wstETH), with the freedom to withdraw or reallocate their funds at any time. Sustainable Giving: The continuous generation of staking rewards creates a self-sustaining model for philanthropy, maximizing the potential for long-term contributions. Positive Potential of Ethereum Staking "We need new financial tools to solve problems that have a new scale. Impact staking changes what it means to be a donor, by not needing them to give away their capital, rather the opportunity cost of some of their staking return” said Jaydeep Korde, a founder of Lido Impact Staking. "Impact staking is a new open source financial tool that creates impact in the real world for real people." About Impact Staking was initially conceived and developed by the team at Launchnodes after Ethereum became a Proof of Stake blockchain. Launchnodes was formed in April 2020 and supports customers globally to solo stake Ethereum and run their own ETH nodes and infrastructure, without ever having to share their keys or give up custody of their ETH. Impact Staking Impact Staking The Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization (LEGO) provided a grant to Launchnodes in 2023, to enable an Impact Staking platform to be created, that leverages Lido's proven, scalable middleware. This resulted in Lido Impact Staking. The LIS team is now engaged with NGOs, governments, charities, family offices, foundations, and other impact causes and donors - all of whom are excited by the potential of Impact Staking as a new and innovative model for philanthropy and driving maximum positive impact. For more information about Lido Impact Staking and how to start staking for social impact, visit impactstake.com or connect with us on social media: impactstake.com impactstake.com Twitter: @impactstake LinkedIn: ImpactStake Twitter: @impactstake @impactstake @impactstake LinkedIn: ImpactStake ImpactStake ImpactStake Website: impactstake.com impactstake.com impactstake.com Contact Andrei D. Lido Impact Staking social@impactstake.com This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here here here

Ethereum Staking Meets Social Impact: Lido Impact Staking Officially Launches

El staking de Ethereum se encuentra con el impacto social: se lanza oficialmente el staking de Lido Impact

Ethereum Staking פוגש השפעה חברתית: Lido Impact Staking מושק רשמית

Staking Ethereum satisfè enpak sosyal: Staking enpak Lido lanse ofisyèlman

Ethereum Staking-ը հանդիպում է սոցիալական ազդեցության. Lido Impact Staking-ը պաշտոնապես մեկնարկում է

イーサリアムのステーキングと社会的インパクトの融合: Lido Impact ステーキングが正式に開始

Ethereum Staking सामाजिक प्रभाव भेट्छ: Lido प्रभाव Staking आधिकारिक रूपमा सुरु हुन्छ

Staking Ethereum spotyka się z wpływem społecznym: Oficjalne uruchomienie stakingu Lido Impact

Miza Ethereum întâlnește impactul social: Miza Lido Impact se lansează oficial

Ethereum Staking plotëson ndikimin social: Nis zyrtarisht Lido Impact Staking

Ethereum Staking möter social påverkan: Lido Impact Staking lanseras officiellt

Natutugunan ng Ethereum Staking ang Social Impact: Opisyal na Inilunsad ang Lido Impact Staking

Ethereum Staking Yi Hlangana Na Vuyelo Bya Ntshamiseko: Lido Impact Staking Yi Sungula Ximfumo

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

The promise of receiving attractive returns has been a cornerstone of the crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. attractive returns crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) Early models managed to attract massive amounts of capital, driven by the high interest rates they offered. attract massive amounts of capital high interest rates But the real question is: how did we get to this point? how did we get to this point? 1️⃣ The Rise of Infinite APYs 1️⃣ The Rise of Infinite APYs Everyone remembers that era of indiscriminate forks, when thousands of tokens were launched just to feed outrageous APYs. indiscriminate forks outrageous APYs. But before reaching that moment, someone had to throw the first stone, right? someone had to throw the first stone The first protocol considered fully DeFi was MakerDAO, launched in 2017. fully DeFi MakerDAO It allowed users to lock ETH as collateral and mint DAI, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the dollar. lock ETH as collateral DAI decentralized stablecoin MakerDAO was revolutionary for two reasons: MakerDAO was revolutionary for two reasons: It introduced the concept of collateralized loans without intermediaries.
It proved it was possible to create a stablecoin without holding actual dollar reserves. It introduced the concept of collateralized loans without intermediaries. collateralized loans without intermediaries. It proved it was possible to create a stablecoin without holding actual dollar reserves. stablecoin without holding actual dollar reserves. Soon after, other pillars of the ecosystem emerged, such as Uniswap (automated exchanges without an order book) and Compound (programmable money markets), laying the foundation for today’s DeFi landscape. Uniswap Compound The ignition point was the launch of Compound’s COMP token in June 2020. ignition point Compound’s COMP token Although the protocol already provided interest for lending and borrowing, the new model rewarded users with COMP tokens just for using the protocol, even if they didn’t actually need the loan. rewarded users with COMP tokens This incentivized a frenzied behavior: borrowing to lend again, in a leveraged loop that multiplied gains, an “infinite loop.” frenzied behavior leveraged loop infinite loop. That’s how the phenomenon known as yield farming was born, along with the craze for astronomical APYs. yield farming craze for astronomical APYs. But if we ask people from that time, few likely remember those moments, as yields weren’t outrageous just yet. yields weren’t outrageous just yet. So the question is: who inflated the bubble, and how? who inflated the bubble, and how? Several Players Helped Fuel the Bubble: Several Players Helped Fuel the Bubble: Yearn Finance (YFI) Yearn Finance (YFI) Yearn Finance (YFI) Led by independent developer Andre Cronje, YFI launched without a token pre-mine or private sale. Andre Cronje without a token pre-mine or private sale. All tokens were distributed to users providing liquidity. Within weeks, YFI skyrocketed from zero to over $30,000, and its automated vaults went viral. zero to over $30,000 automated vaults SushiSwap SushiSwap SushiSwap In August 2020, SushiSwap, a fork of Uniswap, offered SUSHI rewards to users migrating liquidity from Uniswap. SUSHI rewards to users migrating liquidity from Uniswap. It was a successful "vampire attack" that revealed how high APYs could destabilize even the most established projects. vampire attack high APYs could destabilize even the most established projects. PancakeSwap and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) PancakeSwap and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) PancakeSwap and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) Backed by Binance, PancakeSwap replicated the model on the BSC. replicated the model on the BSC. It offered APYs over 1,000% and dirt-cheap fees compared to Ethereum, attracting a new wave of retail investors. APYs over 1,000% dirt-cheap fees retail investors. Its token, $CAKE, combined with staking and exponential price growth, triggered intense FOMO, drawing in even more capital. $CAKE triggered intense FOMO Following PancakeSwap’s popularity, many protocols emerged copying $CAKE’s strategy. many protocols emerged copying $CAKE’s strategy. However, most of these DeFi tokens lacked sustainable foundations. most of these DeFi tokens lacked sustainable foundations. APYs were funded by printing more tokens, and when users started selling their rewards, prices collapsed. APYs were funded by printing more tokens prices collapsed Key Reasons for the Collapse: Key Reasons for the Collapse: Over-minting of tokens: runaway inflation without real revenue
Mass dumping of rewards: users farmed and sold immediately
Lack of long-term utility: many projects were just forks with cosmetic changes
Hacks and bugs: platforms like Harvest Finance, Value DeFi, and Pickle lost millions to exploits Over-minting of tokens: runaway inflation without real revenue Over-minting of tokens: Mass dumping of rewards: users farmed and sold immediately Mass dumping of rewards: Lack of long-term utility: many projects were just forks with cosmetic changes Lack of long-term utility: Hacks and bugs: platforms like Harvest Finance, Value DeFi, and Pickle lost millions to exploits Hacks and bugs: Harvest Finance, Value DeFi, Pickle The market (partially) learned that sustainable returns require real economic models, not just endless token printing. (partially) learned sustainable returns require real economic models, And this is where Real Yield was born. Real Yield 2️⃣ What Is Real Yield? 2️⃣ What Is Real Yield? Real yield in DeFi refers to sustainable interest or rewards generated from actual revenue streams, such as trading fees, lending fees, or protocol profits. Real yield sustainable interest or rewards actual revenue streams, trading fees, lending fees, or protocol profits. Unlike fake yield, inflated by endless token emissions without real backing, real yield: fake yield real yield: Doesn’t depend on minting new tokens
Is distributed to holders or stakers from actual net profits
Is lower, but more stable and legitimate Doesn’t depend on minting new tokens Doesn’t depend on minting new tokens Is distributed to holders or stakers from actual net profits distributed to holders or stakers from actual net profits Is lower, but more stable and legitimate lower more stable and legitimate For instance, if a DEX charges a fee on every trade and redistributes part of that to token holders, that’s real yield. that’s real yield. It’s not speculative farming, it’s profit-sharing. profit-sharing. So, when, and thanks to whom, did Real Yield gain popularity? So, when, and thanks to whom, did Real Yield gain popularity? The term real yield began gaining traction in late 2021 and early 2022, after the collapse of many inflated yield farming platforms (such as OlympusDAO and its many forks). real yield in late 2021 and early 2022 inflated yield farming platforms OlympusDAO In response to these events, several protocols emerged: In response to these events, several protocols emerged: GMX GMX GMX A decentralized trading platform on Arbitrum. Arbitrum It distributed trading fees directly to GMX stakers, in real ETH, not inflationary tokens. trading fees directly to GMX stakers real ETH dYdX v3 dYdX v3 dYdX v3 Introduced rewards more closely tied to actual protocol usage. rewards more closely tied to actual protocol usage. Trading fees are redistributed among LPs and stakers. Trading fees are redistributed Real yield became a maturity narrative in the space, aiming to attract institutional capital and less speculative users. Real yield maturity narrative institutional capital less speculative users 3️⃣ The Current State of Things 3️⃣ The Current State of Things The situation is mixed, but clearly more favorable than in 2020: clearly more favorable than in 2020: There’s growing support for real yield: There’s growing support for real yield: More cautious investors after the collapse of Terra, Celsius, and others.
Protocols like GMX, Lido, Pendle, Aevo, EtherFi, Synthetix v3, and IAESIR are betting on models with organic revenue and sustainable distribution.
New narratives like restaking (Eigenlayer), liquid staking, or modular yield are aligned with this philosophy. More cautious investors after the collapse of Terra, Celsius, and others. More cautious investors Protocols like GMX, Lido, Pendle, Aevo, EtherFi, Synthetix v3, and IAESIR are betting on models with organic revenue and sustainable distribution. GMX, Lido, Pendle, Aevo, EtherFi, Synthetix v3 IAESIR organic revenue and sustainable distribution. New narratives like restaking (Eigenlayer), liquid staking, or modular yield are aligned with this philosophy. New narratives restaking (Eigenlayer) liquid staking modular yield But risks still remain: But risks still remain: Some protocols disguise inflationary yield as “real yield.”
There’s still a lot of speculative capital chasing trends like memecoins or Layer 2 airdrop farming. Some protocols disguise inflationary yield as “real yield.” disguise inflationary yield as “real yield.” There’s still a lot of speculative capital chasing trends like memecoins or Layer 2 airdrop farming. a lot of speculative capital memecoins Layer 2 airdrop farming. Notable Protocols Following the Real Yield Philosophy Notable Protocols Following the Real Yield Philosophy 1. GMX – Perpetual Exchange With ETH-Paid Fees GMX Perpetual Exchange With ETH-Paid Fees GMX is a decentralized futures trading protocol operating on Arbitrum and Avalanche. GMX Arbitrum and Avalanche Its model is simple but effective: GMX stakers and GLP liquidity providers receive a share of the actual trading fees, paid in ETH or AVAX, not in inflated tokens. simple but effective: GMX stakers and GLP liquidity providers receive a share of the actual trading fees ETH or AVAX GMX became famous for distributing tens of millions of ETH during peak volume periods
Yield is directly tied to protocol usage: more trading = more rewards
It’s considered a pioneer in proving that a DEX can generate stable cash flow for its users GMX became famous for distributing tens of millions of ETH during peak volume periods distributing tens of millions of ETH Yield is directly tied to protocol usage: more trading = more rewards Yield is directly tied to protocol usage It’s considered a pioneer in proving that a DEX can generate stable cash flow for its users pioneer in proving that a DEX can generate stable cash flow for its users 2. IAESIR – Algorithmic Hedge Fund With Real Profits 2. IAESIR – Algorithmic Hedge Fund With Real Profits IAESIR is a DeFi investment fund that combines AI-based algorithmic trading with deflationary tokenomics and multiple revenue streams. IAESIR AI-based algorithmic trading deflationary tokenomics multiple revenue streams. Its real yield model is based on: Distributing 70% of the net profits generated by its trading algorithm (based on CNNs and strategies like volatility arbitrage and smart DCA) to investors Distributing 70% of the net profits generated by its trading algorithm (based on CNNs and strategies like volatility arbitrage and smart DCA) to investors Distributing 70% of the net profits CNNs volatility arbitrage smart DCA Token (Not Yet Launched) Token (Not Yet Launched) $IASR is not yet available, but it's designed to distribute 70% of the algorithm’s profits. $IASR distribute 70% of the algorithm’s profits. No inflation
Buybacks and burn mechanisms
Fully aligned with the real yield philosophy No inflation Buybacks and burn mechanisms Buybacks and burn mechanisms Fully aligned with the real yield philosophy real yield philosophy IAESIR offers a transparent, scalable model backed by real technology, built to appeal to both retail and institutional investors. transparent, scalable model backed by real technology both retail and institutional investors. 3. Lido Finance – Leader in Liquid Staking With Validator Rewards 3. Lido Finance – Leader in Liquid Staking With Validator Rewards Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, allowing users to stake their ETH without locking it, in exchange for stETH, a liquid token that represents their staked position. Lido largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum stETH Lido’s real yield model is based on: real yield model Rewards are generated from ETH staking through validators operated by trusted node operators.
These rewards are distributed to stETH holders by automatically adjusting their balances via a rebase mechanism.
No artificial inflation: rewards come from the actual performance of validators on the Ethereum network.
Lido charges a fee on staking rewards, part of which goes to participants and part to the protocol’s treasury. Rewards are generated from ETH staking through validators operated by trusted node operators. Rewards are generated from ETH staking These rewards are distributed to stETH holders by automatically adjusting their balances via a rebase mechanism. distributed to stETH holders rebase mechanism. No artificial inflation: rewards come from the actual performance of validators on the Ethereum network. No artificial inflation: actual performance of validators Lido charges a fee on staking rewards, part of which goes to participants and part to the protocol’s treasury. fee on staking rewards Lido has established itself as a core real yield protocol, attracting millions of users and integrating across multiple DeFi platforms to increase stETH utility. Lido has established itself as a core real yield protocol Its success has helped drive the liquid staking narrative as a legitimate way to earn sustainable and accessible yield on staked assets. liquid staking narrative earn sustainable and accessible yield 4️⃣ In Summary 4️⃣ In Summary 1. The APY Boom Was an Inflation-Driven Illusion 1. The APY Boom Was an Inflation-Driven Illusion The yield farming craze was fueled by incentives without economic backing.
Protocols like Compound, Yearn, SushiSwap, and PancakeSwap offered massive returns funded by token emissions, not real productivity.
This created an unsustainable speculative bubble that collapsed when users began mass selling their rewards. The yield farming craze was fueled by incentives without economic backing. yield farming craze incentives without economic backing. Protocols like Compound, Yearn, SushiSwap, and PancakeSwap offered massive returns funded by token emissions, not real productivity. Compound, Yearn, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap funded by token emissions, This created an unsustainable speculative bubble that collapsed when users began mass selling their rewards. unsustainable speculative bubble mass selling their rewards. 2. The Collapse Forced the Market to Mature 2. The Collapse Forced the Market to Mature The fall of OlympusDAO and similar projects showed that the inflationary model was unviable.
This phase made it clear that sustainable DeFi yield must come from real revenue, not just printing more tokens. The fall of OlympusDAO and similar projects showed that the inflationary model was unviable. OlympusDAO inflationary model was unviable. This phase made it clear that sustainable DeFi yield must come from real revenue, not just printing more tokens. sustainable DeFi yield real revenue, 3. Real Yield Emerged as a Rational Response 3. Real Yield Emerged as a Rational Response Defined as sustainable returns from fees, commissions, or tangible protocol profits.
Lower, but much more stable and transparent.
Represents an evolution toward economic efficiency in DeFi. Defined as sustainable returns from fees, commissions, or tangible protocol profits. sustainable returns fees commissions, or tangible protocol profits. Lower, but much more stable and transparent. much more stable and transparent. Represents an evolution toward economic efficiency in DeFi. evolution toward economic efficiency 4. Real Yield Pioneers Set a New Standard 4. Real Yield Pioneers Set a New Standard Protocols like GMX and dYdX proved it's possible to redistribute real profits (in ETH, not inflationary tokens).
Helped attract more sophisticated capital and restore trust in the sector after the DeFi Summer. Protocols like GMX and dYdX proved it's possible to redistribute real profits (in ETH, not inflationary tokens). GMX and dYdX redistribute real profits Helped attract more sophisticated capital and restore trust in the sector after the DeFi Summer. more sophisticated capital restore trust 5. IAESIR Positions Itself as a Key Player in the New Narrative 5. IAESIR Positions Itself as a Key Player in the New Narrative Although its token $IASR hasn’t launched yet, it already operates with a profitable AI-based algorithm using CNNs.
Designed to distribute 70% of real profits to future stakers, without inflation and with deflationary mechanisms.
Its transparent, tech-driven focus on real performance makes it a strong example of the new DeFi wave. Although its token $IASR hasn’t launched yet, it already operates with a profitable AI-based algorithm using CNNs. $IASR profitable AI-based algorithm CNNs. Designed to distribute 70% of real profits to future stakers, without inflation and with deflationary mechanisms. distribute 70% of real profits without inflation deflationary mechanisms. Its transparent, tech-driven focus on real performance makes it a strong example of the new DeFi wave. transparent, tech-driven focus on real performance new DeFi wave. 6. The Present Is Mixed, but Evolution Is Evident 6. The Present Is Mixed, but Evolution Is Evident Many projects have adopted or imitated the real yield approach.
Yet the ecosystem still struggles with speculative noise, empty promises, and short-lived trends.
The key will be to differentiate between protocols generating real revenue and those merely disguising inflation. Many projects have adopted or imitated the real yield approach. adopted or imitated Yet the ecosystem still struggles with speculative noise, empty promises, and short-lived trends. speculative noise, empty promises, short-lived trends. The key will be to differentiate between protocols generating real revenue and those merely disguising inflation. differentiate between protocols generating real revenue disguising inflation.

The Money You’re Earning in Crypto Isn’t Real

The digital currency landscape is showing no signs of slowing down. Thousands of new coin projects are launched annually, but around 90% fail to make the cut and fall down the gaping pit of obscurity. From top players like Vitalik Buterin to quieter innovators, it’s the persistent minds who keep reimagining how value moves—whether through code or AI. Ian Estrada, the Co-founder and CEO of The MATRIX AI and X Network, is among such forward-thinking leaders of the digital currency economy. Formerly a part of GCash and Global Telecom, Estrada has extensive experience in effective innovation. From DeFi, payments and fintech, he has traversed the disruptive side of blockchain technology and made a name for himself. The advent of AI has accelerated the digital economy, and all discussions regarding the future are incomplete without the mention of this tour de force of tech. According to Estrada, the future of the store of value will be decided by humans and AI agents, which are a big part of the decision-making process now. He has worked on both sides of this divide and recently sat down to share his two bits regarding the future. The wild possibilities of the future are explored by the innovative business leader in this interaction. Ade: You’ve built payment systems at GCash—what’s the one thing traditional finance taught you that crypto still hasn’t figured out? Ade: You’ve built payment systems at GCash—what’s the one thing traditional finance taught you that crypto still hasn’t figured out? Ian Estrada: The most critical lesson from traditional finance is the importance of user experience and seamless integration. Traditional systems like GCash prioritize simplicity and trust, which allows for mass adoption. Crypto, on the other hand, still struggles with onboarding, compliance, and intuitive interfaces. Until the crypto space builds infrastructure that is as frictionless and secure as traditional finance, mainstream adoption will remain a challenge. Ian Estrada: For example, one of the things that drove growth in one of my early products, Instaloan, saw 40,000 loan applications in an hour after its soft launch because we created a simple 3-page digital application form, making sure that we only included fields that were a high indicator of creditworthiness. In crypto, if we take the example of an onboarding process, the process tends to be intimidating and confusing without someone directly guiding you through. Since users tend to be more used to centralized products, being exposed to decentralized concepts (e.g. seed phrases, private keys, signing & approving transactions) is overwhelming. There are many other parts of the user experience that can be optimized – RPC configuration, account management, checking and adding token contracts to your wallet, and many more. Again, crypto is decentralized, so we cannot completely streamline the experience but UX needs to be improved a bit more for the general users to be more comfortable to participate in crypto. Ade: AI’s exploding, but DeFi’s not keeping up. What’s the biggest mismatch you see between these worlds right now? Ade: AI’s exploding, but DeFi’s not keeping up. What’s the biggest mismatch you see between these worlds right now? Ian Estrada: DeFi was built for human actors, not autonomous AI agents. DeFi needs to evolve to serve the underlying needs of not just AI technology but also its economic ecosystems. There will need to be new models and mechanics that the growing AI sector needs, which current DeFi protocols do not have. Ian Estrada: Some key components: Lack of AI token utility - most AI agent tokens launched right now have no actual token utility. They are basically memecoins.
Token price instability – because there is a lack of token utility, their price tends to be unstable.
Integration into AI agent frameworks – smart contracts of protocols will also need to be updated to enable transactions by AI agents (which poses its own challenges like ensuring security). Lack of AI token utility - most AI agent tokens launched right now have no actual token utility. They are basically memecoins. Token price instability – because there is a lack of token utility, their price tends to be unstable. Integration into AI agent frameworks – smart contracts of protocols will also need to be updated to enable transactions by AI agents (which poses its own challenges like ensuring security). My personal opinion is that the previous generation of DeFi projects has not yet fully embraced AI, so it will take time for the current DeFi protocols to catch up. Ade: You’ve said stablecoin tech might be 4-5 years from takeoff. What’s holding it back—tech, markets, or something else? Ade: You’ve said stablecoin tech might be 4-5 years from takeoff. What’s holding it back—tech, markets, or something else? Ian Estrada: It is simple – there needs to be more stablecoins circulating across more wallets. If you look at how fintech products grew in the past, mobile wallets as an example, they needed to have enough users and enough merchants having fiat in their wallets. I believe it's the same thing – the more users (individual and institutional) have stablecoins, then the technology will follow. Ian Estrada: Ade: You’ve pushed for OTC desks to get stablecoins in people’s hands. Why’s that the missing piece, and who’s dropping the ball? Ade: You’ve pushed for OTC desks to get stablecoins in people’s hands. Why’s that the missing piece, and who’s dropping the ball? Ian Estrada: I view OTC desks as distribution channels. Related to my earlier point, they are a critical channel for more users to acquire stablecoin. The more OTC desks there are, the more access to stablecoins, and the greater the adoption. Ian Estrada: However, there's not much focus on creating more OTC desks globally, other than buying them from large institutions. I think the challenge here is regulation (regulators may choose to create high requirements to set up a legitimate one) and a lack of entrepreneurs who have both payment and crypto experience to create them. Ade: New York’s new bill under Trump’s watch aims to criminalise crypto fraud like rug pulls. How do you see this shaping the stablecoin space? Ade: New York’s new bill under Trump’s watch aims to criminalise crypto fraud like rug pulls. How do you see this shaping the stablecoin space? Ian Estrada: Regulatory action is inevitable and I am in support of criminalizing rug pulls. However, the big question is policy - how are rug pulls defined versus a natural market correction in an industry where negative 50-90% is the norm? Since most rug pulls happen on-chain, how will they capture the bad actor executing it? Ian Estrada: From a stablecoin perspective, I do not think they will be affected much. USDT and USDC are closely monitored by the US regulators. They are also the primary US dollar-denominated digital asset in circulation, with an 88.5% dominance, so I believe that they will be a secondary line of defense. The primary line of defense would be to make sure that law enforcement works effectively with centralized exchanges if bad actors choose to use them to off-ramp stolen funds. Ade: Crypto’s a wild ride—how do you design stable systems when token prices won’t sit still? Ade: Crypto’s a wild ride—how do you design stable systems when token prices won’t sit still? Ian Estrada: At its core, stability comes from managing buy and sell pressure. The market always has ups and downs - the key is how to create incentives to increase buy pressure and mechanisms to reduce sell pressure. AI token-backed stablecoins are one solution to this. By locking tokens to mint stablecoins, it introduces a layer of stability for crypto AI. Ian Estrada: This principle is not new; we have multiple examples of mechanics that wrap native assets into derivative assets that end up managing sell pressure – Collateralized Debt Positions (popularized by MakerDAO), voting-escrowed tokens (popularized by Curve Finance), and liquid staking (popularized by Lido Finance). Instead of using or trading the native asset, a user instead uses a derivative asset to trade or conduct DeFi transactions, effectively making the derivative asset volatile instead of the underlying native asset. Ade: Imagine an AI agent paying for compute or services—what’s the one financial tool it needs? Ade: Imagine an AI agent paying for compute or services—what’s the one financial tool it needs? Ian Estrada: An intelligent stablecoin that can autonomously manage payments, access liquidity pools, and handle cross-chain settlements, is one. AI infrastructure projects usually require their own native token as a form of payment, which exposes all the participants (demand and supply-side) to volatility. An intelligent stablecoin removes volatility exposure as it automatically stabilizes itself to ensure it maintains the peg, which is important for financial sustainability. Ian Estrada: Ade: By 2030, what’s the craziest way you think AI and stablecoins could rewrite how we trade value—human or machine? Ade: By 2030, what’s the craziest way you think AI and stablecoins could rewrite how we trade value—human or machine? Ian Estrada: I imagine a world where no user no longer needs to actually touch their stablecoins. They can tell their agent to buy a pizza, book a cab, or pay someone. I think that's really cool. Ian Estrada: My vision is simple, but for us to get to that point, there are a lot of things that need to be done. I imagine that payment companies need to be integrated into agents and need to support crypto assets and fiat; each of the different apps will need to be integrated with crypto wallets; there also must be AI agents that can interact with the different services. Those are just some preliminary thoughts, but it gets me excited.

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