Roadmap

Stakers Union 2025 Plan

Progress Update

Our subcommittee leaders have made impressive contributions including regular, well-received X/Twitter threads, and coordinating the first in-person meetup of Stakers Union members at Devcon. Membership has continued growing with 132 verified members.

Goals for 2025

Mission Statement

An often-referenced concern is the lack of a unified mission statement. This has resulted in challenges communicating a coherent and consistent message to prospective members and (in the future) potential funders of the Stakers Union. The Stakers Union mission is to support and advocate for solo-stakers within the Ethereum network, recognizing their crucial role in maintaining decentralization and network security. We are committed to securing out-of-protocol incentives for solo-stakers to counterbalance the centralizing forces of liquid staking tokens and large staking entities. By fostering a community of engaged, verified solo-stakers, we aim to promote greater solo-staker participation, contribute to protocol development discussions, and give back to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Commitments

Advocacy for Decentralization: Champion the importance of solo-staking to preserve the decentralized nature of Ethereum, opposing centralization that can compromise the network's integrity.

Securing Out-of-Protocol Incentives: Work towards obtaining additional incentives for solo-stakers outside of the protocol (through grant funding, token airdrops and sustained pledges).

Active Participation in Protocol Development: Engage in discussions related to Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to advocate for changes that incentivize solo-staking, penalize centralized staking, and encourage more solo-staker participation.

Membership Requirements

Another common issue is membership requirements. Currently, only solo-operators (committing 32ETH) and Rocket Pool minipool operators (committing a bond of 8ETH) are eligible. The introduction of distributed validator technology (DVT) has created several challenges including difficulty satisfying current verification requirements and lowering or removing bond requirements which some members have suggested eliminates “skin in the game”, an important commitment of solo-staking. The topic will remain open for discussion as well as proposals related to:

  • Minimum bond requirement
  • Alternative methods supporting DVT cluster participant verification
  • Rewards correlation to number of validators

Key Objectives

  • Promote additional membership applications, incorporate and use analytics to identify successful marketing methods
  • Schedule regular community calls (monthly) for progress updates and member feedback
  • Complete Gitcoin Passport integration to reduce membership Sybil risk
  • Apply to a minimum of 3 public goods funding rounds, gathering feedback on submitted proposals
  • Expand existing partnerships to identify opportunities for additional rewards for verified members (ex. Obol Collective proposed partnership with Ether.fi (opens in a new tab) Operation Solo Staker)
  • Participate actively in Ethereum ecosystem discussions (ex. Stakers Union representative in All Core Developers calls)
  • Continue to seek applicants for unfilled positions (chairperson, Grants) and reappoint or seek new applicants for filled positions

It was truly amazing to see some of our members gathering in person at Devcon and I’m incredibly excited about the future of the Stakers Union and what we can do next year. As always your feedback and thoughts are critical to the success of our organization and I look forward to hearing more ways to continue pushing the Stakers Union forward.

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