Puffer PUFFER

Puffer Finance was founded in 2002 by Amir Forouzani and Jason Vranek. Vranek, who acts as the project’s CTO, said that Ethereum’s liquid staking model combined with EigenLayer’s native restaking capabilities allow users to maximize rewards.

The approach simply increases resource efficiency to expand revenue streams, while enhancing visibility at the same time.

Puffer itself claims that its mission is to define a new industry standard for secure validator operations, with the primary objective of preserving Ethereum’s decentralization. It also uses anti-slashing technology to reduce the risk of correlated slashing events across Ethereum, while simultaneously promoting decentralization by lowering the entry barrier for validators.

The project has received multiple investments from prominent names, including Brevan Howard Digital, Jump Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, and, as of January 2024, also Binance.

Puffer Finance has introduced many staking modules, each of which comes equipped with unique EigenLayer AVSs, created for specific strategies.

However, the project truly distinguishes itself by tapping into EigenLayer to generate additional restaking rewards.

Specifically, the protocol introduced Native Liquid Restaking Tokens (nLRTs), which act as a hybrid asset that combines the features of PoS and restaking rewards. As such, it can increase the value proposition for participants.

Its long-term goal is to reach a future where validators transcend the confines of traditional Proof of Stake validating. Instead, it empowers them to reuse their hardware and capital as efficiently as possible, to increase profitability and viability alike.