Sep 20 2024
Summer may be coming to a close, but the staking tides keep surging forward! This month Liquid Collective supported the launch of NORS: the Node Operator Risk Standard, the world's first audited certification to attest to professional staking risk management, in collaboration with 13+ industry-leading teams including Liquid Collective collaborators Alluvial, Blockdaemon, Coinbase, DV Labs, Figment, and Staked, and others, with initial NORS Qualified Assessors from KPMG and other Big-4 firms.
NORS is a landmark development in the professionalization of the proof of stake industry. The risk standard is the first to meet institutional due diligence needs for verifying that node operators have adequate risk management practices in place for ETH staking, following the same AICPA standards as SOC1 or ISO27001. NORS covers controls such as diversity, slashing prevention, and more.
You can learn more at nors.global. Read on for more NORS resources, information about the NORS / NYC launch event on September 30th, an overview of novel restaking platform Symbiotic, Blockworks Research on LsETH, and more.
Liquid Collective's Latest
Announcing NORS: The world's first formal certification to attest to staking risk management
Liquid Collective is proud to have supported the announcement of NORS: the Node Operator Risk Standard Certification. Developed by an expert working group under Alluvial's facilitation, alongside diverse collaborators including Aon, Blockdaemon, Chainproof, Coinbase, DV Labs, Eigen Labs, Figment, Galaxy, Liquid Collective, Nexus Mutual, Staked, and other leading experts, NORS sets a new benchmark for operational security and risk management in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Liquid Collective expects to use NORS Certification alongside the protocol’s Performance SLAs as an objective input into qualifying active set participation. Get all of the details, and read the release, on nors.global, or learn more about NORS...
- from Alluvial here
- from Figment here
- from Obol here
- from Blockdaemon here
- The Staking Summit: Nov 8 - 9, Bangkok
- Devcon: Nov 12 - 15, Bangkok
- Emergence: Dec 5 - 6, Prague
- On August 22, Ethereum passed a new milestone of over 34 million ETH staked. View the charts here.
- Twinstake facilitated the first swap transaction by a staking provider on the CES (Composite Ether Staking Rate) by CoinDesk Indices & CoinFund, the first for Ethereum ETFs in the US. Learn more here.
- 21Shares diversified its custodians for its ETH ETF product, including Coinbase, Anchorage, and BitGo. Learn more here.
- Coinbase launched cbBTC on mainnet and Base, a new development in Ethereum-composable bitcoin deployment. Learn more here.
- EigenLayer published specifics about its integration of permissionless token support for ERC-20s. Learn more here.
- Blockdaemon COO Amor Sexton published an op-ed in Forbes on the evolution of MEV. Read it here.
- Franklin Templeton deployed its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on Avalanche, the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to record transactions and share ownership. Learn more here.
- Bitwise expanded into Europe with its acquisition of ETC Group, issuer of the largest physical Bitcoin ETP in Europe (BTCE). Read the announcement here.
- Nudge.xyz, the new product launched by Mauve, announced the launch of its new primitive, Re:allocation, which directs the flow of onchain goods with programmable incentives. Learn more here.
- Mara Schmiedt, CEO and Co-Founder of Alluvial, a team supporting Liquid Collective’s development, was featured as a Coinbase Ecosystem Founder in a recent roundup from The Information, including her work supporting Liquid Collective’s development. Read it here.
- Bitcoin Suisse published a new Industry Rollup, including market performance, dynamics, macroeconomic signals, trends, and more. Read it here.
- Jason Lebo, Head of Private Wealth for Hashnote, published an op-ed in Coindesk on integrating yield-generating mechanisms as a next phase of DeFi’s growth. Read it here.
- Total Supply ETH: 89,880.215 ETH + 0.19%
- Total Value Locked: $229,121,746 - 16.73%
- LsETH Conversion Rate: 1 LsETH = 1.05892 ETH + 0.27%
“NORS represents a pivotal development for the cryptoasset industry. At a time when large, sophisticated financial institutions are getting seriously involved in public blockchain networks, building security standards that align with institutional expectations is critical for making it easier to onboard and adopt this technology.
By setting a robust, verifiable framework for validator risk management, alongside the formal AICPA attestation process familiar from SOC 1 and other security standards, institutions will finally be able to evaluate the quality of staking infrastructure on a level playing field."
—Evan Weiss, COO at Alluvial, a team supporting Liquid Collective’s development
The 101 on Symbiotic: A new restaking model
Symbiotic, which emerged from stealth mode in June 2024, is a permissionless shared security protocol for decentralized networks and apps that added support for LsETH restaking in August. Its unique in the restaking landscape for its focus on incentive alignment, offering a flexible, modular solution to help align incentives of all parties within an ecosystem.
Learn more about Symbiotic, how it works, and how it differentiates in the restaking ecosystem in our educational post here.
Blockworks Research on LsETH
Blockworks Research published an open flashnote on Liquid Staked ETH (LsETH), covering Liquid Collective’s growth, key dynamics, ecosystem, and more. The report notes that LsETH’s YTD growth “is evidence of its success in meeting clients’ unique needs,” along with exploring how Liquid Collective differentiates in its security, compliance-focused model, and node operator performance SLAs.
Dive into the Blockworks Research report here.
Take the Liquid Collective staking survey
In 2023, to help highlight what matters to stakers, Liquid Collective conducted a limited survey of staking participants. Liquid Collective is now collecting responses for the 2024 Staking Survey.
All staking participants are welcome to take the 5-question survey, sharing your preferences and priorities to help understand how the landscape has shifted over the last year and where it's heading.
Take the 2024 staking survey here, and send the link to your favorite stakers to help spread the word!
Events
Blockdaemon and Liquid Collective are hosting a NORS launch event on Monday, September 30th! Join the experts from the 13 members of the NORS working group for a day of engaging conversations covering a range of topics, from managing institutional risk, node operator assessment, resilient validator infrastructure, and future-proofing the standard.
Interested in attending? Nexus Mutual is hosting a ticket giveaway here for the ecosystem to join, or reach out to your favorite Liquid Collective team to let them know that you’d like to attend.
Upcoming Conferences: To connect with the teams supporting Liquid Collective at an upcoming conference, contact us.
News from the Collective & Ecosystem Updates
Liquid Collective By The Numbers
All data is accurate as of Sep 20, 2024. View real-time onchain data here on Dune. Percentage changes are from the Aug 16, 2024 edition of By The Numbers.