Lido is a protocol that allows anyone to earn staking rewards without having to maintain staking infrastructure or lock their liquidity on proof-of-stake blockchains. The value of assets staked using Lido has increased to almost 18 billion USD since its introduction at the end of 2020, and Lido has spread to five blockchains. Lido went operational in December 2020, just a few weeks after the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain. Staking on the Ethereum blockchain has several drawbacks. Only multiples of 32 ETH can be staked. There are also operational hurdles, such as the requirement for technical competence to participate. Furthermore, the staked ETH is tied to the ETH 2.0 first phase and cannot be utilized in any other protocol. Lido’s non-custodial staking services try to address these difficulties. This is in contrast to the staking services provided by exchanges. The issuance of stETH, a tokenized version of staked ETH, solves the capital inefficiency problem. Users can still use their staked money in other protocols with this token. Lido’s initial focus was Ethereum, but it is now branching out to other blockchains. Staking on Terra began in March 2021, and staking on Solana started in September 2021. Stakeholders of Terra’s native LUNA asset or Solana’s SOL asset receive a derivative token, similar to Ethereum (bLUNA or stSOL). Lido’s main product is liquid staking or the tokenization of staked assets. The Lido DAO runs the protoc...
