Meet the Marinade v2
Updates
June 19, 2024

Introducing Marinade v2

Marinade is evolving and improving. Learn more about Marinade v2 in this article.

Introducing Marinade v2
  • Marinade v2 revolutionizes the staking industry, tapping into a market 20 times larger with an expansive leap from liquid to native staking.
  • By harnessing Solana’s cutting-edge staking design and leveraging stake authority, Marinade Native eradicated smart contract risks, paving the way for unparalleled security and peace of mind.
  • With Protected Staking Rewards (PSR), stakers are guaranteed 100% of their rewards. Building an on-chain SLA system, the Marinade DAO sets a new standard by requiring validators to stake SOL deposits, ensuring top-notch performance and reliability.
  • The first-of-its-kind Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) removes the dark market between validators and stakers. It boosts SOL staking yield with transaction fees, priority fees, and MEV tips.

Welcome to the new SOL staking meta

The new Marinade introduces a complete paradigm shift for Solana staking by combining multiple principles in its offering:

  • Solana’s core protocol architectural design for maximum safety.
  • Incentive design to fix the asymmetries in the principal-agent problem.
  • Game theory to maximize market efficiency.
  • Transparent scoring system and multivariate model of asset allocation.
  • And Solana’s technological capabilities for an unparalleled user experience.

Zero smart contract, fully non-custodial

Marinade v2 innovates by eliminating smart contract exposure, leveling the playing field for native SOL staking. Users retain full control over their SOL tokens and stake accounts.

Each stake account has two signing authorities specified by their respective address, each of which is authorized to perform certain operations on the stake account.

https://solana.com/docs/economics/staking/stake-accounts

With each stake account having two signing authorities, Marinade acts as the stake authority, automating delegation strategies while ensuring users maintain ownership.

This non-custodial stake automation is just the beginning of the game-changing features offered.

100% uptime protection for staking rewards

Experience uninterrupted staking yield ensured by on-chain validator SLAs.

Traditionally, any shifts in node operator commissions or downtime would result in irreversible staking rewards losses for delegators.

Marinade’s revolutionary delegation strategy allows seamless participation, backed by a robust protection system. Validators now stake an SOL deposit, known as a PSR bond, to qualify for Marinade’s delegation, aligning incentives and safeguarding delegators against potential yield loss.

With over 400 Solana validators onboarded, the PSR bond signifies commitment and ensures peace of mind, guaranteeing staking rewards remain secure and operate flawlessly at 100% uptime.

Best staking yield on the market

The Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) pioneers a groundbreaking approach and brings the dark market between stakers and validators to light.

Stakers maximize their staking rewards by automatically delegating to an open market of validators.

Validators participate in an open auction for Marinade’s stake, which empowers users with enhanced staking yield and captures all rewards—MEV, transaction fees, and issuance yield.

Marinade v2 benefits all Solana ecosystem actors

Validators

Get more stake instantly. New or existing validators can attract more stake in a permissionless and programmatic way. They commit to 100% performance to protect Marinade’s delegated SOL by setting up a PSR bond and funding it with SOL. Validators participate in democratized access to SOL delegation in an open public marketplace.

Delegators

Maximum staking yield, forever. With one click, Marinade users automate their SOL delegation to the most performing validators at the best staking rate possible. With no smart contract exposure, users are protected with 100% of the expected yield and are auctioning out staked SOL to the marketplace of validators in demand of stake.

Solana

Stable, secure, and censorship-resistant network. By algorithmically delegating to hundreds of objectively performant and less concentrated areas.

Marinade DAO

Contributing at scale. Marinade's Stake Auction Marketplace with PSR is the new meta of Solana staking. The DAO will benefit from TVL growth and accrue value at the auction marketplace flow level.

Making Solana ever-decentralized

Since 2021, Marinade has been working to make the Solana network more stable, secure, and censorship-resistant.

To progress on Solana’s decentralization, the Marinade DAO has been reporting on the network state with

transparent public dashboards and democratizing automated diversified Solana staking for anyone to use.

What started as a bootstrapped project with no VC funding became the #1 TVL Solana protocol, delegating more than 10M SOL (2.5% of the total stake) to help more than 200 community-run validators operate sustainably on Solana.

The Marinade DAO is committed to its original mission, and Marinade v2 marks a big milestone in helping Solana on a much bigger scale.

The new v2 product version solves the most significant pitfalls of current SOL staking options:

  • Smart contract exposure. The Marinade Native product, introduced in 2023, solves this. It currently serves 10,000+ users with 4M+ SOL.
  • Node operator risk. The Protected Staking Rewards system is being rolled out on the mainnet, and more than 300 validators have already deposited 4,000 SOL as the insurance deposit.
  • Sub-optimal staking yield. The Stake Auction Marketplace offers users the best market-driven staking yield by allowing all Solana validators to bid for staked SOL in a public auction. This marketplace is expected to roll out at the end of Q2 2024.

This is the new Solana staking meta.

Try it out and let us know your thoughts on X, Discord, or the Forum.

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