Lido, the premier liquid staking platform, is considering executing its second iteration on the Ethereum blockchain. This crucial move affects users in the decentralized finance (DeFi) community seeking further decentralization and better on and off ramps into Ethereum's staking ecosystem.
Lido's Twitter account describes version 2 (v2) as the "most important upgrade to date" since its launch in December 2020. Ethereum serves as Lido's first and largest market for liquid staking tokens.
The latest version focuses on two primary aspects: ETH staking withdrawals and the introduction of a "Staking Router," which aims to increase participation from a more diverse set of node operators. With Lido holding a commanding lead as the largest liquid staking platform in the DeFi space, v2 on Ethereum arrives as Lido boasts $11.77 billion in total value locked across the Ethereum ecosystem, as reported by DefiLlama.
A blog post explains the potential impact of the upgrade: "The implementation of withdrawals coupled with the Staking Router proposal will contribute to an increase in the decentralization of the network, a more healthy Lido protocol, and enable the long-awaited ability to stake and unstake (withdraw) at will, reinforcing stETH as the most composable and useful asset on Ethereum."
The vote will conclude on May 15. If the governance vote passes, Lido's smart contracts will upgrade, and version 2 will go live, ushering in a new era of improved decentralization and access to Ethereum's staking ecosystem.
