Following the proposal for CSM and SDVTM Tier 0 & Tier 1 Integration, we are submitting this grant proposal to extend the integration to Tier 2 & Tier 3 for the Community Staking Module (CSM). A separate proposal for SDVTM integration will follow at a later stage.
We aim to further integrate Lido’s Community Staking Modules (CSM) into Stereum, our Ethereum node setup and management tool. This extension builds on the groundwork of Tier 0 & Tier 1 integration, making CSM node operation more accessible, user-friendly, and easier to monitor and manage.
Objectives
The objective of the grant is to meet the outlined requirements for Tier 2 and Tier 3
Tier 2 Requirements:Operator Manager This tier incorporates on-chain interactions, allowing actions such as adding a new node operator, uploading keys, claiming rewards, and setting up a dedicated manager and reward addresses, without requiring a graphical user interface.
Tier 3 Requirements:Full-featured Operator UI Building on the previous tiers, Tier 3 adds visual features suitable for a graphical interface, including lifecycle graphs for node operators, such as earnings, performance, and events, along with the ability to compare node operator stats with averages.
Proposed Features
1. Custom Installation Options
Provide flexible installation workflows, allowing users to incorporate Lido staking services across diverse infrastructure setups.
2. CSM Monitoring and Management Enhancements
Extend the CSM Monitoring Dashboard within Stereum’s control page to include:
Lifecycle Graphs: Visualize earnings, performance metrics, and event logs
Required Bond Visualizations: Track required and current bond amounts for key uploads
Rewards Visualization: Display claimable rewards
Node Operator Comparison: Compare individual statistics with platform averages (if data is available)
3. Wallet Integration & UI for On-chain Interactions
Enable intuitive graphical user interfaces for:
Wallet connection within Stereum for on-chain interactions.
Adding new node operators
Uploading validator keys
Claiming rewards
Configuring manager and reward addresses
4. Ongoing Maintenance and Support
Provide continued updates, compatibility assurance with future Stereum and Lido releases, and dedicated user guidance & support.
Budget and Implementation Plan
We request a EUR 97 240 grant from the Lido DAO to fund the following project phases over the next 6 months:
Implementation: Develop and integrate proposed features fullfilling requirements for Tier 2 and Tier 3
Testing & QA: Thoroughly test on-chain interactions, UI components, and monitoring tools
Delivery: Provide documentation, user guides, and support channels
Payment: 50% upfront and 50% when finished. Payments provided to: 0x3C3FF4C9d4390b6000743e0E00d8506e6566d96d
Impact
This integration will:
Advance decentralization and accessibility for Lido’s staking services
Simplify complex node operations through an intuitive interface, aiming for an all-steps-in-one-place full integration.
Enhance monitoring and management capabilities for operators
We are excited to contribute to this next milestone in Lido’s vision for decentralized staking. Together, we can empower more node operators to participate, creating a robust and accessible staking ecosystem.
Thank you for considering our proposal. We look forward to further collaboration with the Lido DAO to decentralize and improve Ethereum staking operations.
Hey @daGscheid !
Thank you so much for the proposal! The first version of the integration looks amazing and I’m happy to discuss its further enhancement!
I have a couple of questions on the scope you proposed:
Question #1
Does this include the ability to claim bond?
Question #2
Here I just want to highlight that the native version of CSM does not include the ability to create a new Node Operator on top of existing one – so if you talk about the initial creation of a new operator it’s fine, but I’d not want to have a direct pathway for users to sybil (create a multiple NOs by a single address)
Question #3
If we want to have an integration in Stereum that fully covers all the features exist in “native” CSM UI (so that people don’t need to go to csm.lido.fi at all), there are some features missing:
deleting a key before it got deposited
topping up a bond
compensating for locked bond
Question #4
Also would like to see if you’re planning to include the alerts for Node Operators in this interface (exit requests, stuck keys, etc)
Question #5
Are you planning to develop completely new interface or want to reuse the existing one? If former, how you ensure the new functionality of existing UI being added to your version (say, if new UI features/tabs added to csm.lido.fi)?
In general, to make the integration worth spending time and resources, I think there should be a plan to spread the word and CSM being integrated in Stereum to your community.
First of all, thank you for the questions! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year’s celebration!
Question 1:
Yes, this will include the ability to claim the bond.
Question 2:
Yes, we are indeed talking about creating a new operator using a new address.
Question 3:
The points you mentioned are included in the proposal. The ones I outlined earlier are just some of the more notable ones. We are fully committed to creating a comprehensive CSM experience within Stereum.
Question 4:
Many of the alerts already exist in the current iteration, supported by a CSM Monitoring service we’ve built. We plan to extend this service to cover all possible aspects and make it publicly available, even for non-Stereum users utilizing Grafana and Prometheus.
Question 5:
We plan to use the existing features as a foundation and further build upon them. This grant proposal is designed to cover development work for at least the next six months. If integrating new features requires additional efforts, we will prepare further proposals to cover the associated costs.
To address the last point, we’re planning workshops with international universities and collaborations with DLT communities in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Additionally, our presence at Ethereum events, including booths and speaking engagements, will focus on addressing topics like the 32 ETH staking barrier, promoting CSM as the solution offered in Stereum. Further videos and guides when finished are also planned along the way!
Hope this addresses all your concerns.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions or need clarification!
Thank you for the answers; everything seems clear to me!
However, one aspect that hasn’t been discussed is the expected outcome of this proposal. Since we already have a workable solution for CSM in Stereum and considering the significant costs of further improvements, I believe we should evaluate this proposal—and the justification for the associated effort—based on the value it brings to Ethereum as a whole and the Lido Protocol in particular. For me, this value translates into the number of new operators it can attract to the Ethereum network.
As far as I know, Stereum doesn’t collect data on its user base, making it difficult to assess how many operators are currently using it or its potential for growth. Despite this, it’s important for LEGO and the broader Lido community to understand Stereum’s growth plans and roadmap in order to properly evaluate the proposal.
I’d like to encourage further discussion on this topic and invite everyone to share their thoughts (cc @enti@stakesaurus).
Stereum is my go-to tool, and I’ve seen some new home stakers start to use it, but I’ll have to agree with Sasha here. The Stereum community is still in its infancy (just like pretty much all communities in this niche), and would be awesome to understand more in depth about your plans and see the community grow!
That would not only help justify the grant (97K EUR is a fair bit amount of money), but also see how members of the Lido community like me can contribute.
Our proposal seeks to align the grant features with similar initiatives. In our initial grant, the focus was solely on Tier 0 & Tier 1 integration, which ensured a strong foundation for CSM operators wanting to join through Stereum. This was strategically set up by us - extending our scope to include Tier 2 & Tier 3, ensures parity in adoption potential & seeks to make CSM the native solution for stakers with less than 32 ETH in Stereum.
While it is true that we never collect and never will collect user data numbers for multiple reasons (handeling under Austrian law, etc.) - the adoption of Stereum, within the staking community is evidenced by dashboards like the Graffiti Word Cloud on beaconcha.in, which shows a strong segment of stakers already using Stereum - as Stereum sets “stereum.net” as a default block graffiti for its users (if not further modified), as well as weekly download numbers through github.
This serves as an indicator of the dark numbers, pointing to a larger, less visible user base, which are not motivated to disclose their usage of Stereum for their own reasons.
However this doesn’t mean that we are not looking forward to improve usage. Our plans this year beyond better staking management & CSM integration, includes features like enhanced RPC Access Management, positioning Stereum as the premier node management solution for developers building on Ethereum- making it possible to easily share access of the nodes in teams & making Stereum overall more attractive to developers. This efforts come on top of more improvements to the usability & accessibility that are planned in form of a more streamlined UI design this year.
Furthermore, the work done to enable on-chain interactions and smart contract interfacing will lay the groundwork for future SDVTM integration efforts. This ensures that current efforts are not siloed but contribute to a larger, interconnected roadmap for Lido Ethereum node management and staking solutions.
Our team at Stereum and RockLogic is fully committed to the long-term development and ongoing improvement of Stereum. This proposal reflects our dedication to advancing decentralization, usability, and accessibility for Ethereum as a whole.
We believe this grant will not only enhance the functionality of Stereum but also drive meaningful adoption of CSM, fostering a stronger and more decentralized Ethereum staking ecosystem.