Reviewing Rocket Pool: Why Was it Created?

Rocket Pool is an Ethereum infrastructure service. Individuals and companies wishing to earn interest on their Ether for a fixed period can use the decentralized network of Rocket Pool to participate in the staking. Exchanges, staking pools, and wallets can easily provide customers with stake verification services using the Rocket Pool API and its unique decentralized network of node operators.

Backstory

Since Ethereum was launched in 2015, it has been widely used in the crypto-world. And although it may have been in the shadow of Bitcoin for a long time, Ethereum 2.0 — the current update of the network — will enable the transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake algorithm.

Casper is the planned Ethereum network update that will move the blockchain from the PoW to PoS. Miners will be replaced by validators. The work of validators will not require hardware calculations — instead, it will be necessary to have a certain amount (steak) of coins on a special deposit.

The founders of Ethereum have repeatedly pointed out the undesirability of the emergence of large pools of validators, as this reduces the degree of decentralization of the system. However, the probability of assigning a validator to a block is weighted by the size of its deposit. So, large players may have additional votes in Ethereum development. 

What is Rocket Pool?

Australian startup Rocket Pool has developed a validator pool platform that will allow Ether holders to earn with a deposit of 1 ETH instead of declared 32 ETH on the Beacon chain. Or just 16 ETH for a node operator. The minimum stake amount will vary, depending on the price of ETH.

Four other features of the Rocket Pool that may be attractive to users:

1. Casper requires validators to be technically proficient at running an Ethereum node 24/7 and keeping that node online and secure. Rocket Pool takes care of this part by offering simple interfaces.
2. The possibility of early withdrawal: validators do not have such an opportunity. Rocket Pool allows you to withdraw funds ahead of schedule in native rETH tokens with a commission of 5%. These tokens can be sold on the market.
3. The user should know how to interact with smart contracts while registering with the Beacon chain. Rocket Pool undertakes the fulfillment of all interactions with Beacon chain contracts for the user.
4. The Beacon chain will penalize users who make a deposit but cannot maintain their node on the network. The Rocket Pool uses a unique method called “chinking”, which significantly reduces the storage risk by distributing one storage across a decentralized network of nodes.

Key principles of the Rocket Pool

The process of transferring Ether from a user's wallet to a Casper stake consists of three steps:

1. A user creates an ETH deposit on a smart contract and selects its term using a simple web application. Minimum 1 ETH, valid for 3, 6, or 12 months.
2. Smart contracts “pack” ether into mini-pools with the same duration and integrate them into “smart nodes” that have technical resources (server, CPU, memory, bandwidth) as soon as they satisfy the minimum amount set by the protocol.
3. Smart nodes make stakes on Casper, receive rewards for work, and distribute it. The system charges a fee, the amount of which depends on many factors, for example, the price of ETH, network reward, type of equipment, and the optimal number of mini-pools per node.

Rocket Pool Economic Model

The Rocket Pool economy consists of two types of tokens:

Rocket Pool Token (RPL) — is the protocol token that underlies the entire pool system. 18 million RPLs were sold at ICOs at the end of 2017. Its main function is to demonstrate to the whole network what deposit this smart node can count on — it should contain as many RPLs as this node can use in the rate, taking into account its technical characteristics (CPU, SSD, memory, network speed). In the future, a third-party hosting professional can become a smart node operator. The current price per RPL token is about $2.29.

Rocket Pool Beacon Chain ETH Token (rETH) enables deposits, staking rewards are paid out as rETH in order to give node operators and stakers liquidity before Serenity Phase 2.

An rETH:ETH pair can also be available during the integration with other token markets such as those on Uniswap. Thus, the users who withdraw on Rocket Pool can have their withdrawal converted to actual ETH if liquidity for the rETH pair on Uniswap is acceptable.

Of course, it’s up to you to decide whether to use it or not. Our responsibility is to keep you informed.