AMA Recap: stake.link
Date: September 18th, 3pm UTC
Host: DeFiNaut
Guest: Jonny Huxtable, Founding Member
🦝 Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts! We recently hosted an AMA with stake.link. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did running it with the team!
Table of Content
∘ Introductory Questions
∘ Community Questions
∘ About stake.link
∘ About Crypto Raccoons
Introductory Questions
DeFiNaut: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today at the Raccoons for our crypto educational session none other than stake.Link! Now grab your pop-corn, nuts, berries or insects and let’s meet the CEO of stake.link; Jonny Huxtable! *wait for applause*
Effortlessly stake your crypto assets with stake.link’s easy to use, secure liquid staking protocol for the Chainlink Ecosystem.
Feel free to check out their website at: https://stake.link/ and check out their twitter: https://twitter.com/stakedotlink
Welcome Jonny, please introduce yourself briefly to the Raccoons!
Jonny Huxtable: Thanks for the intro and thanks for having me. So yeah, I’m Jonny one of the founding members of stake.link. Been building in crypto since 2017, and founded the first node operators that went live on Chainlink mainnet way back in 2019.
DeFiNaut: Ok, let me give you a warm welcome from all of our Raccoons around the world, and do make yourself at home! Can you briefly tell us more about your mission? We’re looking for a summarized elevator pitch here!
Jonny Huxtable: Sure thing. So stake.link is the first liquid staking platform for the Chainlink Network. It consists of 15 of the top node operators, and looks to be at the forefront of securing Chainlinks economic security that’ll drive adoption in this industry with its definitive truth.
DeFiNaut: And you yourself are also a node operator? I mean originally, or how did you become part of the equation
Jonny Huxtable: Yep, so I’m the founder of LinkPool which was setup late 2017 solely to be the first team to build high-quality node operations for Chainlink. We was one of the first 3 node operators on Chainlink’s go live, so been doing this a while. Back then, I used to be active a lot in Chainlink socials, setup LinkPool and with the launch of Chainlink staking last year, grew that vision from a single node operator to 15 of the best all providing liquid delegation on Chainlink.
DeFiNaut: That’s quite impressive! Would you say you’re part of the ChainLink core team or do you see yourself more like a representative or contributing community member.
Jonny Huxtable: I have certainly done work at Chainlink over the years, but now my focus is pretty solely on stake.link and its growth.
DeFiNaut: so I do have to say diving through the documentation can become quite technical, and while that’s interesting for many people in here, for the ama itself we prefer to keep it not tooooo technical, if that makes sense! So it’s easily digestable. But we shouldn’t be afraid to go a bit deeper here and there.
So can you tell us about the origins of the idea for stake.link? What inspired you? What issues did you identify and set out to resolve? This is more like a philosophical question but I’m really looking for the moment you’ve thought, we can do this better!
Jonny Huxtable: With the new launch for the next iteration of staking, we’ll be working on the docs so will keep that in mind :)
The origins of stake.link were really focused on allowing people to stake their LINK seamlessly on our Chainlink node. On development of stake.link and the maturing of ideas over the years, it became something much larger than that by building a consortium of the best node operators to enable delegated staking within the Chainlink Network and soon the wider community pool. Really, the issues we were looking to solve were ease of use and liquid stake.
DeFiNaut: Let’s hear about the team building stake.link. What’s the core team’s background and do you have crypto history? How many developers do you have on the team? Any notable advisors or VCs onboard? I know you’ve already shared some of your past, but perhaps there’s other noteworthy members on the team.
Jonny Huxtable: The core team that built stake.link is made up of Web3 veterans, a lot who started with us in 2018. Like shown there, the consortium of the leading node operators is a huge benefit to the collaboration that takes place. We’ve built many things over the years on top of the Chainlink network, so we’ve had plenty of time to hone skills and really build something that shines with stake.link.
DeFiNaut: And since many of the top node operators are onboard it seems to me that you also radiate reputability and trustworthiness — in terms of attracking stakers and DeFi participants with the liquid staking. Furthermore there’s probably also synergies with the core chainlink team for events / marketing etc? Or perhaps development support?
Jonny Huxtable: Chainlink Labs is an ecosystem participant for stake.link so they do certainly aid in its future plans. To answer the VC question, stake.link at the minute is entirely self funded by LinkPool. So no VCs onboard, we’re happy to be able to build this product as a collective with us and the node operators.
DeFiNaut: Liquid staking has gained significant attention in the blockchain and DeFi space recently. Can you explain how stake.link is approaching the concept of ‘liquid staking’ and what solutions or features you are developing to enable users to participate in staking while maintaining liquidity and flexibility in their assets?
Jonny Huxtable: Sure. So when depositing LINK into the pools, users will receive the staked receipt token stLINK. This token is rebasing, always stays 1:1 with the underlying LINK collateral and users are then free to use and move around that token as they please.
With the future growth of LINK staking with the next iteration of Chainlink Staking, we’ll be really driving ways for people to be able to use stLINK more.
DeFiNaut: OK so in the end it’s all about liquidity right. can you share perhaps a few examples what users could do next with their stLINK ?
Jonny Huxtable: Currently, we have incentivised liquidity on Curve in ETH mainnet. This provides liquidity in a stable pool for stLINK/LINK.
With the launch of Chainlink CCIP, we’re also working on new cross-chain initiatives on Optimism for people to bridge both their wstLINK & SDL. There’s a lot in the roadmap over the next 6–12 months.
People can read about what is being proposed for incentivised liquidity on our governance forum:
DeFiNaut: So to break it down in simple terms, people could go to stake.link — here they will stake their LINK — they’ll end up getting stLINK, and then these they can stake again on Curve in ETH mainnet for even more rewards?
Jonny Huxtable: Correct. There’s currently no open space in the LINK pool, but with our upcoming launch for the next iteration of Chainlink Staking, people will be able to stake more of their LINK in our new Priority Pool.
DeFiNaut: ok awesome, are there any other imaginative possibilities for people with stLINK besides staking them on Curve, for example could someone built another application that accepts stLINK as collateral?
Jonny Huxtable: That would very much be an option yeah, we’ll be very much working on more opportunities to use stLINK in the upcoming months. Composability of liquid staked tokens is paramount and with the growth of stake.link, you’ll probably see stLINK in a lot more dApps.
DeFiNaut: Thank you, while all of this stuff gets technical, we find it important to bring to the imagination the practical possibilities. Because in the end it’s all about adoption too right. Awesome stuff! Looking forward to what more you guys have cooking.
Jonny Huxtable: Sure, with more adoption and innovation will also come increased usability.
DeFiNaut: Staking is a fundamental aspect of the Chainlink ecosystem, and it’s clear that stake.link is actively working on enhancements.
Can you provide insights into how stake.link plans to integrate or facilitate staking for Chainlink Staking v0.2, as mentioned in SLURP-11? Specifically, what innovative features or strategies are being considered to make LINK staking more user-friendly and to ensure that LINK holders don’t miss out on staking opportunities due to limited pool availability?
DeFiNaut: More info also here:
Jonny Huxtable: So with Chainlink Staking v0.2, for the first time in DeFi we’ve build “set and forget” staking with our new Priority Pool.
Users will be able to deposit their LINK into the Priority Pool and as soon as space opens up, that LINK will be deposited automatically into Chainlink Staking and users will then be able to claim their stLINK. By staking and locking SDL (stake.link native token), you’ll receive priority access to get your LINK staked first.
DeFiNaut: Yes so what’s about the “as soon as space opens up”, I read that’s a thing with the community pool. Is it not possible for everyone to stake?
Jonny Huxtable: It’s a good question. So far Chainlink Staking has a maximum of 25M LINK, with each node operator having 50k LINK of space each. In Chainlink Staking v0.2, that’ll increase to 45M. Once that is full, no more LINK can be staked until someone withdraws.
DeFiNaut: ok happy that stake.link is providing the “set and forget” feature so that they don’t need to track this window of opportunity
Jonny Huxtable: The stake.link Priority Pool is a great option, as you don’t have to make sure you’re available to stake your LINK. You can deposit your LINK, forget about it, drink mojitos on the beach and then come back with stLINK ready to claim if you made it in.
DeFiNaut: ok so before we forget, stake.link also has a native token! $SDL. How does it fit into the platform? What are its utilities or key functions? I read there was a recent innovation here as well.
Jonny Huxtable: Sure, so SDL is the native token that provides council governance ability, priority staking and extra stLINK rewards depending on how long it’s locked for. For a detailed explanation on our new tokenomics that will be launching soon, you can read my governance post:
https://talk.stake.link/t/slurp-8-sdl-tokenomics-v2-0/74
DeFiNaut: ok so Jonny, we’ve learnt so much already, but for all the marines and LINK hodlers in here;
Can you tell us once and for all why the LINK Marines should all come and stake with stake.link vs the Chainlink community pool? How do we get started?
Jonny Huxtable: Easy. Set and forget liquid staking that gives you the best blended reward rate staking against the best Web3 infrastructure providers in the entire industry.
DeFiNaut: With that in mind, let’s conclude this part of the educational interview by letting the Raccoons know what your next milestones are on the roadmap? Feel free to add any teasers or alpha!
Jonny Huxtable: Mentioned this many times, but over the next week expect to see us making large progress with the new v0.2 features.
We’ll be working on cross-chain support using Chainlink CCIP, further incentives to use stLINK in other places and some new staking initiatives coming down the pipeline. It’s never a boring day in crypto, there’s always a lot to build.
Community Questions
Q1: Given that within DeFi, liquid staking is a subsector that allows users to earn returns by locking their tokens without losing their liquidity, what are the growth margin expectations for the stake link ecosystem in terms of total value locked (TVL) in the medium and long term?
Jonny Huxtable: Chainlink Staking v0.2 will increase allocations by 20M LINK. I think with the priority pool mechanism and with the potential to secure a large amount of LINK in Phase 3 of Chainlink Staking, I’d personally like to see stake.link easily get 8 figures of TVL with that significantly growing over 2024. I don’t want to give exact numbers, but will tease that with this iteration of staking, there’s a lot more possibility.
Q2: Liquid Staking Liquidity: While the protocol provides a liquidity buffer, what guarantees are in place to ensure that users can indeed withdraw their staked LINK through stLINK when needed?
Jonny Huxtable: So currently we have a LINK liquidity buffer that allows people to withdraw nearly 40K of LINK. With the launch v0.2, this will be replaced entirely with the priority pool. So if someone withdraws their stLINK, it then will swap that for the LINK in the priority pool and the depth of withdrawal liquidity is the amount of LINK waiting to be staked in the priority pool.
We will support native LINK withdrawals as they’re being added in Chainlink Staking v0.2, but we foresee the priority pool mechanism providing more than enough withdrawal liquidity while giving those waiting to be staked the stLINK in return.
Q3: I read that stakedotLink enables users to deposit $LINK into the priority pool , and it will autostake on their behalf. Can you explain how the process of autostaking works and do we need to hold $SDL to deposit in the pool?
Jonny Huxtable: This is a good question. So once live (look for our release announcement!) all you need to do is deposit your LINK and nothing else, that’s it.
If you stake & lock SDL in the same wallet that deposited the LINK in the priority pool, it will automatically have priority over those without reSDL (locked SDL). Although, no SDL is needed to stake LINK in the priority pool!
Q4: One of the promises of L2 scaling solutions is dramatically reduced gas fees. However, gas still remains a barrier for retail participants interacting with Ethereum L1 contracts like StakingPool. do you have any plans to deploy L2 solutions or sidechains to reduce gas costs?
Jonny Huxtable: Another great question. So I briefly mentioned that with Chainlink CCIP you’ll be able to bridge both SDL and wstLINK over to Optimism, but that wont be all!
Over the next coming months, you’ll be able to actually stake your LINK directly into the Priority Pool on Optimism and stake your SDL on Optimism. The goal is that we’ll enable users to use the full suite of stake.link offerings using the power of Chainlink CCIP.
About stake.link
stake.link is the industry-leading cohort of infra providers, staking validators, and Chainlink node operators
Telegram: https://t.me/stakedotlink
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stakedotlink
Website: https://stake.link
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