Will Swell turn Ethereum-staking around?

Hi, Gem Hunter! Today will be a serious article because the project is serious too. So let's skip the procrastination and get straight to the reading, huh? :) Let's go! 

Swell is a transparent, non-custodial and liquid protocol designed for Ethereum validators and stakers.

- Swell has received support from funds and angels ala Framework Ventures, Apollo Capital, IOSG Ventures, Maven 11, Mark Cuban, Kain Warwick;

- Swell Network offers staking through Swell Financial NFTs (swNFTs) and Swell Vaults, providing higher returns;

- The Swell protocol has undergone several audits by CertiK, Chainsulting and Peckshield;

- Swell TGE is planned for the near future.

Problem

Ethereum's PoS design allows for ETH escrow and, importantly, asset locking. And assuming stakers would prefer to:/

- Deposit their ETH and not depend on a validator;

- To unlock their deposited ETH to earn an additional profit, thereby increasing the efficiency of the asset;

- Have the ability to withdraw deposited ETH at will without any lock

These theories are amplified against the backdrop of the DeFi ecosystem, which is characterised mainly by rapid financial and technological innovation. As a result, it is not surprising that the demand for liquid ETH staking continues to grow.

The current solution space

With the Beacon Chain already in operation since December 2020, several solutions have come to the fore to meet the demand of stakers. A deeper review of existing solutions suggests that more innovation and choice are needed for an issue as crucial as ETH staking, fren.

Solution

Building on the practices of DeFi 1.0 and building on the innovations of DeFi 2.0, Swell introduces a new era of ETH-stacking: Staking 2.0. This means higher returns, a better user experience and complete transparency.

For validators

Swell will give validators the ability to create and run nodes worth less than 32 ETH efficiently. The initial requirement will be 16 ETH. Likewise, Swell will integrate Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) to help pave the way for node operators to reduce the need from 16 ETH to just 1 ETH. (This has already been demonstrated in the Proof of Concept of the Swell project, which has been running on the Beacon Chain since its inception in December 2020). 

Swell caters to verified and unverified node operators; verified node operators will be able to run their own branded nodes with Swell’s infrastructure running in the background. Kind of like Shopify for ETH staking!

Progress 

Here are some highlights:

- Sid round closed: Swell is now fully capitalised to create the next generation of ETH-stacking, with funds going to product development, security, growth, resourcing and more;

- Several audits of Swell v2 smart contracts from CertiK, Chainsulting and Peckshield have been completed. Reports will be made available to the public soon;

- Swell beta testing is planned for later this month. Invites for the beta test will be available soon.

Want to know more? Hop on over to Discord!