Super interesting discussion and hardly any new points for me to add in the same line. So let me add some perspective as a LIDO validator on Polygon that has been there from the start.
We have been fortunate to be a part of this mission to decentralize Polygon staking from CEXs. All of us tried. Believe us, we tried but nothing moved the needle till a LIDO came along. And it did change status quo by a major margin.
After the foundation, LIDO is now the 5th largest delegator on Polygon. This is no small feat achieved in less than 18 months, especially in a bear market.
I do understand that economics are not adding up right now but that would be a myopic view, wouldn’t it? Bear market has taken down most of the giants. It is only the ones who survive will reap the bull market benefits. Now we all can debate that if Polygon is the chain that will grow stronger as the next bull cycle comes along (but how many such bets are there, really?). I am happy to have that debate on a different channel (for context, we are validators only on Polygon and crazy Polygon bulls) but that is speculative and not the point of this discussion.
The simple point is how do we stick around on Polygon (and any other bets) with bleeding as little as possible so that the LDO holders and the ecosystem reap the benefits of the bull run. If there are zero operational costs going in right now, then this seems like a no-brainer to continue, right?
The only concern seems, if the next milestone is reached, there would be additional outflows to Shard Labs. @Edi_ShardLabs, I might be speaking out of turn here but that could be easily worked out where outflows are temporarily suspended but when the conditions improve there is a catchup. Sunset seems like a super strong decision for a shorter term problem (IMO). As Marin said, Shard Labs x LIDO ain’t the same relationship as Lido on Solana. The easiest thing I see is pausing fresh delegations till economics or Polygon token price reaches X. This way the bleed is minimized.
With Polygon 2.0 around the corner, it might just a super bad time for LIDO to exit. P2.0 is not just EigenLayer style restaking, it is the whole suite needed to make restaking a success. Fundamentally, at this point, there is just potential upside and hardly any downside.
With 2.0, we as validators, would survive and thrive. Capital, delegated through liquid staking, would also find it’s way back through any liquid staking protocol and there a few new ones coming up on Polygon. But it would be super disappointing to see the pioneer of liquid staking on Polygon leave when it is about to get interesting. There are additional revenue opportunities coming up in 2.0, that validators can share with LIDO and other delegators. Being the 5th largest (and gunning to be the largest) is the position LIDO can leverage and absolutely not worth letting go off.
As for any operational costs that we are missing, if there is anything we can take off LIDO’s plate as validators and contribute more, we would be happy to consider. Marin, Shard Labs and us validators can huddle on this to try and come up with a proposal.