Welcome Banter fam for a brand new AMA with Stader Labs, my name is @CryptoGameNerd and I will be your AMA host for today!
Stader is building key staking middleware infra for multiple PoS networks for retail crypto users, exchanges and custodians. Stader is building extremely modular smart contracts so third parties can leverage our components and build custom solutions.
In the short term, Stader is building native contracts across multiple chains including Terra, Solana, Ethereum, Near, Avalanche, Fantom etc., and building an economic ecosystem to grow and develop solutions like yield redirection-style farming with rewards, liquid staking, launchpads, gaming and more.
In the long term, Stader will focus on unlocking the platform approach and nurturing third parties to develop several staking applications with Stader infra.(source https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/stader/)
Q: Hello Amitej , good to have you here for our AMA, could you tell us a bit more about yourself, and your background?
A: I am Amit Gajjala, Co-Founder and CEO of Stader Labs. I have 10+ years of experience in Business strategy and scaling start-ups across India, SEA and Europe.
- Top Management at India’s largest Food tech App, Ex-strategy consultant at ATKearney
- Education: IIT & IIM Alumnus
Q: How and when did your Crypto journey start?
A: Sid (our Co-founder & CTO) and I have been actively investing in the crypto space since 2019. We have deep expertise in bitcoin and alt coin mining and staking.
Stader was started by Sid and I in April 2021 after deep analysis of crypto and staking space.
Staking is already a 300 Bn USD market and is poised to grow manifold. We aim to capture a lion’s share of the staking market and onboard 1 Bn+ users to staking. We are building critical infrastructure across PoS networks.
Q: Can you tell us when and why you came with the idea to found Stader Labs?
A: I have been a staker myself and realized as a user that the process could become much more efficient. We identified that discovering & monitoring validator performance, collecting airdrops, monitoring portfolio across validators & blockchains are all quite time consuming and cumbersome activities.
We wanted to build a protocol that simplifies staking for all types of users. That was the genesis of Stader. Now, our aim is to build a staking infrastructure platform that can be customized for retail users, enterprises and mainstream fin tech applications.
Q: What can you tell us about the core team of Stader Labs , how big is the Dev team and where are you guys located?
A: We have the most talented and experienced leadership team at Stader. Overall 50+ years of deep expertise in scaling companies across the world. Some of our core team members below:
- Sid, Co-Founder and CTO, who has a decade of technology and crypto experience. Alumnus of Columbia and IIT.
- Dheeraj , our third co-founder and protocol lead , has 10+ years of experience in building and scaling technology applications in blue chip silicon valley companies including Linkedin and Paypal.
Apart from the co-founders , the leadership group includes several top professionals from Ivy Leagues and tier-1 companies across the globe including Mckinsey, BCG, ATKearney etc.
StaderLabs HQ is in Singapore. We are a team of 60+ highly motivated and skilled individuals from across 11 nationalities. We have 18 high-performance developers which comprise our in-house tech team.
Q:It’s important for us to know how this project is funded, did you attract some smart money?
A: Top quality crypto funds participated in our seed and strategic sale.
Seed sale: Pantera Capital. Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Jump Capital, and Ledgerprime.
Strategic sale: 3 Arrows Capital, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment
Prominent angels include Jaynti Kanani (CEO, Polygon), Sandeep Nailwal (COO,
Polygon), Nemil Dalal (Head of Crypto, Coinbase).
CoinList sale: Stader also had a historic token sale on CoinList Sale with 1.2 million+ registrations.
Q: How is the project following up on the Roadmap, have you kept all your promises so far?
A: We have been cruising at rocket speed across blockchains. We launched in late November on Terra and have seen tremendous traction with over 850 M USD staked assets so far.
- Traction on Terra Blockchain:
Launched the following staking products on Terra blockchain with a TVL of ~$850 Mn, 35000+ wallets, 8.5M+ $LUNA stader and a 100,000+ strong staking community
- Simplified Staking (Stake Pools)
- Liquid Staking (LunaX)
- Individual Validator Staking (Stake+)
Ongoing:
- Stader launched Liquid Staking on Hedera on 9th April 2022 & got ~3000 Users and 7 Mn USD TVL on HBAR (beta launch).
- Over the next 2-3 weeks, we are also launching on Polygon as well as Fantom blockchains.
Future Roadmap:
- Expansion of Stader staking platform into multiple blockchains. We aim to be present on 10 blockchains (including Near, Polka, Eth etc) by the end of 2022.
- Build customized staking solutions for institutions and exchanges
- Allow third party developers to build their own staking dApps with Stader smart contracts
Q: Most of us know Staking, but you talk about Liquid Staking and Staking+. What makes staking Liquid with Stader Labs and what does the + mean?A:
Liquid Staking:
Staking is good to have a passive income, but that also locks in your tokens. Liquid staking provides a solution to it. When you stake with Stader, we will provide the liquid tokens corresponding to the amount you are staking (LUNAx, HBARx, MATICx and so on). These tokens can be used to future amplify yields by participating in the Defi ecosystem while earning staking rewards.
So, now you get Staking rewards and Airdrops from the staking, plus you have liquidity with the liquid token to invest in other places.
Stake+:Stake+ allows a user to stake his coins with a particular validator through Stadet and retains the key features of our platform like auto-compounding and one-click airdrops. This will also help in further decentralization of the chain as it will also allow smaller validators to gain delegations. Currently,Stader has 26 validators on Terra blockchain and will grow more. Blog Link
Q: The project has its own token, the SD Token, could you tell something about the Token Distribution and also the utility of the token?
A: SD token is the native governance token for Stader protocol. SD token will be critical for successful functioning of the Stader platform i.e. for key governance decisions, validator selection and exit criteria etc. A portion of the protocol revenue will be distributed to SD token stakers.
There are going to be 3 major utilities for Stader tokens.
- The first major utility of SD token is that SD token stakers receive a % of protocol revenues as staking rewards. xSD is given out when you stake SD tokens. xSD can be locked up to receive a higher share of protocol fees and additional emissions. This also entitles users to governance rights to redirect emissions, vote on validators policies etc.
- Second major utility for SD token is validators across stake pools and liquid staking will have to hold and stake SD tokens to receive preferential delegations.
- The third utility is the following: Stader token holders can deposit SD-LUNA, SD-UST, SD-liquid LUNA pairs on Stader, and earn rewards for doing that.
Q: Stader has a governance for the Stader protocol, how do you manage this across PoS networks?
A: We will first implement governance on Terra platform. Further, we will have all governance moved to Eth so there is one central place to govern stader protocol.
Q: The Banter Community always likes to look forward, can you share your vision where Stader Labs stands in 5 years?
A: We want to be the largest protocol by staked assets across crypto in 5 years. The TVL goal would be >100 Bn USD. While we will cover all top blockchain in retail space, we will also expand to several other segments including institutional customers, exchanges etc. within
Community Questions:
@hhmmkrpt: How much we can stake at max?
A:Right now, our contracts are live on Terra, Hedera. In next 1-2 weeks, they will be live on Polygon, Fantom and Solana. You can stake as much as you want to.
@Mammaaali In the lite paper it had mentioned that, there would be staking options for institutions?How do you plan to make sure that the institutions will prepare to stake when there are plenty of other options which offer attractive Apy's?
A We are customizing staking contracts for institutions to build tax efficient vaults and other customised products.
@Softexy I'd like to know how STADER going to encourage more validators to join and how you're going to make sure delegators are equally distributed and not just chasing price, high yields?
A: We will select good performing validators who have lesser voting power. We use a round-robin based delegation process that stakes with the validator with least stake.
@wojakkkk Is there any plans to add more stakeable tokens to the website?
A Yes. Our aim is to add 10 more blockchains in the next 6-7 months.
@faaawaaad So one Defi possibility is to be able to use $MaticX.
What other Defi possibilities will liquid staking open up for the community?
A: Liquid staking tokens can be used for several use cases like liquidity pools, options protocols, lending protocols etc.
@LiebestraumArt Is a company such as Stader going to be user friendly for beginners like me to navigate the staking sphere ?
A: We will continue to develop the protocol to make it user friendly.
@cryptelyn: Where do you see Stader Labs 3 years from now?
A: In 3 years from now, we will see Stader as one of the top protocols in crypto. with at least 30-50 Bn USD of TVL. Top 1 position across at least top 10 out of 15 chains and No 1 player in institutional staking space.
@Sam_Salt7: How is Stader better than just staking on terrastation?
A: Stader has several advantages over Terra station. With liquid staking, you get LunaX that has several utilities across Terra already. Including being a collateral on Mirror, Edge. It can be used to provide liquidity on Terra swap too.
If you just stake with Stader on Stake pools or Stake +, we convert all stable coin rewards to Luna and auto-compound. That's a significantly higher return over staking with Terra station.
@CryptoGameNerd: Wow, that is a lot of info, thank you so much for being here, answering the questions from our community and I wish you all the best in achieving the project's goals! And happy to see you in 3 years from now 🙂
I hope you all loved our new concept for the AMA and I hope to see you all for the next one!
Check out Stader Labs:
https://linktr.ee/staderlabs