ether.fi ETHFI

Ether.fi is a decentralized, non-custodial, delegated staking protocol that uses a Liquid Staking Derivative token. It has a number of distinguishing characteristics, with the most notable one being the fact that stakers control their own keys.

The project’s mechanism allows for the creation of a node services marketplace, allowing node operators and stakers to enroll nodes and provide infrastructure services. These services can also secure revenue, which is then shared with both parties.

The project also collaborates with EigenLayer, which allows its staking protocol to gain access to a powerful staking collective embedded in the ETH network. On top of that, the platform offers tailored institutional staking, with both custodial and non-custodial solutions, and adopts future-looking strategies.

Its whole concept is based on three guiding principles — that its primary objective is to maintain decentralization; to ensure a sustainable revenue model; and to always keep ethics in mind, and do the right thing for the Ethereum community.

There are two main things that make Ether.fi unique. The first one is that stakers get to generate and hold their own staked ETH keys, and the second one is that an NFT minted for every validator is launched via ether.fi.

This makes the project stand out, as most other delegated staking protocols adopt an approach where the stakers deposit their ETH and get matched with a node operator, who then generates and holds the staking credentials.

While this approach can be used to create a non-custodial approach, in practice, it creates a custodial or semi-custodial mechanism, exposing the staker to counterparty risk. Ether.fi does not do this, and so the risk is minimal.