https://ift.tt/TJhzSkb Collects $10 Million To Ramp Up Decentralized Staking Infrastructure for ETH 2.0

February 8, 2022 – Tel Aviv, Israel

ssv.network, the open-source and decentralized protocol that simplifies access to decentralized ETH staking, has collected $10 million to ramp up decentralized staking infrastructure for ETH 2.0.

ssv.network launched a DAO partner program in October 2021 with the objective of enlarging its community and strengthening DAO partnerships. Initially, it was made of individuals and experienced technical users, with industry leaders and key personalities from the POS space joining the growing SSV ecosystem.

ssv.network, based on the secret-shared-validator (SSV) research – later dubbed DVT – is the first protocol that enables anyone a secure way to split a validator key between non-trusting nodes (or operators).

The technology relies on a network of nodes that operate under consensus to help generate ETH rewards for stakers. ssv.network facilitates trustless access to ETH staking, providing robustness and stability to the staking space while promoting client diversification and Ethereum’s decentralization. ssv.network received an Ethereum Foundation (EF) grant and developed a working proof of concept with the foundation. The EF later labeled  SSV technology under distributed validator technology (DVT), a key element of its roadmap for ETH 2.0.

This technology is the key to solving the fundamental issues for existing staking providers, large centralized exchanges and even highly technical at-home validators, providing them with the infrastructure and stability needed to develop liquid staking protocols or delegation services, staking pools and more on Ethereum 2.0.

In most cases, service providers rely on trusted validators who custody the private validator key owned by the user. A decentralized staking model is particularly necessary for liquid staking protocols and staking pools, which in many cases compromise on decentralization for the sake of offering a superior user experience. ssv.network will enable liquid staking pools and DeFi protocols an easy and simple access point to decentralized ETH staking.

Given the enormous popularity of ETH staking and the upcoming ‘merge,’ ssv.network has positioned itself as the layer zero of Ethereum – decentralizing and systematizing staking on the infrastructure level – similarly to how layer two solutions do this for scalability.

Thanks to the enormous promise of the technology, ssv.network added a number of strong partners during its first and second batch of the DAO partner program, which is still ongoing. This adds to an effort to incentivize large ETH stakers to join the SSV DAO.

So far the network has partnered with Digital Currency Group, Coinbase, Lukka and others like Gate.io Ventures, OKEX Ventures, DSRV, Lead Capital, NGC Ventures and Forbole, with more in the pipeline. ssv.network has also onboarded many ecosystem partners including Allnodes, Everstake, DAppNode, Blockscape, Valid Blocks, Chainlayer.io, RockX, Shardlabs, Stakin, AMBER, BloxStaking, Infstones and Skillz, with more companies, key figures and grants lined up to join.

Alon Muroch, core contributor at ssv.network, said,

“We identified DV technology at a very early stage as a critical component in Ethereum’s transition to ETH 2.0. It is incredible to see the level of adoption and participation at such an early stage in the network’s life cycle. ETH staking and DeFi will be some of crypto’s core themes in 2022, and both segments will benefit tremendously from decentralizing Ethereum’s security layer, which we call layer zero. 2021 was the year of layer two, [and] 2022 is set to become the year of layer zero.”

About ssv.network

ssv.network is a fully decentralized open-source ETH staking network based on secret-shared-validator (SSV) technology. The network provides an open and simple infrastructure for anyone who wants to run a distributed Ethereum validator – from ‘do-it-yourself’ users, all the way to staking pools and big institutional staking services. All while enabling non-custodial, decentralized validators to power the next generation of staking derivatives and services.

Contact

Eran Efrima