The Lido Community Staking Module (CSM) testnet on Holesky is live!

- CSM testnet is live for eligible 'Early Adoption' participants;

- High-performing testnet participants may qualify for mainnet 'Early Adoption';

- Running CSM validators is similar to running vanilla validators.

CSM is Lido's initiative to enhance decentralisation and democratise Ethereum staking. CSM allows permissionless entry to run validators using the Lido protocol.

2. ETH-based bonding with unique bond curve design;

4. User-friendly interface with reduced operation gas cost;

5. Potential for higher rewards vs solo staking.

The testnet has two phases: 'Early Adoption' period (now) & 'Permissionless' period (starting mid July)  📅

If you are an eligible early adopter, collect 1.5 ETH on Holesky and join CSM now. If not, get your clients ready and stay tuned! 

Any operator will ultimately be able to access the CSM testnet.

Running a CSM validator is similar to a vanilla validator, with the addition of registering your validator in CSM. 

- Help build a strong permissionless-entry validation module for Ethereum;

To stay updated on Lido's CSM, claim the 'CSM Operator' role in the 

Learn all about the launch of the CSM Testnet below 👇

The Lido Community Staking Module (CSM) testnet on Holesky is live!

➡️ https://t.co/1fhhjUq5YJ

- CSM testnet is live for eligible 'Early Adoption' participants;
- CSM opens to everyone in mid July;
- High-performing testnet participants may qualify for mainnet 'Early Adoption';
- Running CSM validators is similar to running vanilla validators.

#CSMTESTNET
CSM is Lido's initiative to enhance decentralisation and democratise Ethereum staking. CSM allows permissionless entry to run validators using the Lido protocol.

Key CSM features:
1. Permissionless entry;
2. ETH-based bonding with unique bond curve design;
3. Smoothened rewards;
4. User-friendly interface with reduced operation gas cost;
5. Potential for higher rewards vs solo staking.
The testnet has two phases: 'Early Adoption' period (now) & 'Permissionless' period (starting mid July)  📅

If you are an eligible early adopter, collect 1.5 ETH on Holesky and join CSM now. If not, get your clients ready and stay tuned! 

Any operator will ultimately be able to access the CSM testnet.
Running a CSM validator is similar to a vanilla validator, with the addition of registering your validator in CSM. 

Check the CSM documentation👇

https://operatorportal.lido.fi/modules/community-staking-module
Why join the CSM testnet?

- Potential for mainnet Early Adoption;
- Experience CSM's ease of use;
- Help build a strong permissionless-entry validation module for Ethereum;

https://x.com/LidoFinance/status/1803392352351818196
To stay updated on Lido's CSM, claim the 'CSM Operator' role in the #cs-get-roles channel and follow the #csm-testnet channel.

https://discord.com/channels/761182643269795850/1255114351120089148
Learn all about the launch of the CSM Testnet below 👇

https://blog.lido.fi/presenting-community-staking-testnet/

CMC Market Pulse: June 21

Week in DeFi: Lido V2 Launches, GMX Synths in Testnet and Cosmos Mesh Security

Analyzing Lido’s stETH  After the Shapella Fork: IntoTheBlock

Week in DeFi: Tornado Cash Back to Life, ZkEVMs Heat Up and a Polygon Identity

Week in DeFi: Uniswap Drama, DeFi Giants Make Their Moves and Some Polkadot Action

## What Is Lido DAO (LDO)?

Lido DAO is a [decentralized autonomous organization](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) ([DAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao)) which provides [staking](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/staking) infrastructure for multiple [blockchain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain) networks.

Most notably, the platform provides a liquid staking solution for Ethereum, allowing users to stake their ETH and receive [stETH](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steth/) (Lido staked ETH) tokens in exchange, which represent the user's staked ETH and staking rewards.

Lido DAO is secured by a mix of decentralized governance, audited code and smart contracts. The Lido protocol runs on Ethereum with help from smart contracts that process user deposits and distribute staking rewards, among other functions. Several third-party security firms have [audited](https://github.com/lidofinance/audits) Lido’s smart contracts in order to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.

The platform’s native token is LDO - which also serves as the governance token for Lido DAO. Holders can participate in governance proposals and vote on key decisions such as board adjustments, new integrations and platform updates. LDO holders have the right to determine the development and operation of the platform.


Lido currently supports staking for Ethereum and Polygon only with the recent sunsetting of Solana.

## Who Are the Founders of Lido DAO?

Lido was established by Konstantin Lomashuk, Vasiliy Shapovalov and Jordan Fish in 2020. The organization was helped to launch by a collective of financial firms and angel investors.

The finance firms include Semantic VC, ParaFi Capital, Libertus Capital, Bitscale Capital, StakeFish, StakingFacilities, Chorus, P2P Capital and KR1. 

The handful of angel investors who also helped Lido get off the ground include Stani Kulechov of Aave, Banteg of Yearn, Will Harborne of Deversifi, Julien Bouteloup of Stake Capital and Kain Warwick of Synthetix.  


## What Makes Lido DAO Unique?

Lido aims to make staking more accessible to a wider range of users by [pooling](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/staking-pool) staked ETH from multiple users, which negates the need for any technical expertise on behalf of users. Users also don’t need to commit a minimum amount of 32 ETH to run their own validator, which lets more people stake their ETH. 

Lido Liquid Staking V2, or Lido V2, is the latest major release of the Lido DAO protocol. It was designed to provide a more efficient and versatile staking solution for Ethereum 2.0. 

One of Lido V2’s key features is its "Liquid Staking" model, which allows users to deposit ETH into the Lido pool and receive stETH (staked ETH) tokens in return. These tokens can be traded on secondary markets or used on “[LSDFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-lsdfi-overview-of-lsdfi-protocols)” protocols, providing users with a more liquid form of staked ETH that can be used for other purposes.

Overall, the Lido DAO network is a robust and secure system that enables users to participate in governance and earn rewards while helping the network to stay secure.


### Related Pages:

Read about [Ethereum (ETH)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/)  [Solana (SOL)](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-solana-the-ultimate-guide-to-the-solana-ecosystem), [Polygon (MATIC),](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-polygon-the-ultimate-guide-to-the-polygon-ecosystem) [Polkadot (POL)](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/a-deep-dive-into-polkadot), and [Kusama (KSM)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/kusama/) — the chains that Lido supports.

What is [staking](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/staking)? Learn more with the [CMC glossary](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps).

Check out our guide to the [DAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-dao) ecosystem.  

New to crypto? Check out [CoinMarketCap's educational portal](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria) to get the latest news and insights.


## How Many Lido DAO (LDO) Coins Are There in Circulation?

As of June 2023, the total circulating supply of Lido DAO tokens is 879,588,042 LDO, around 88% of the total supply. The max supply is 1,000,000,000 LDO. 

Looking at the tokenomics of LDO, the allocation of these tokens is as follows:

DAO treasury — 36.32%

Investors — 22.18%

Validators and signature holders — 6.5%

Initial Lido developers — 20%

Founders and future employees — 15%


## How Is the Lido DAO Network Secured?

Funds are secured within a smart contract, making them inaccessible to validators. Subsequently, LDO token holders vote in the Lido DAO to vet, select and onboard new node operators, and penalize existing ones slashed by chain rules.

Lido also has a $2,000,000 bug bounty program with the Immunefi platform, a leading DeFi bug bounty program. Lido Bug Bounty programs focus on avoiding user fund losses, denial of service, governance takeovers, data breaches and data leaks. Lido has already awarded $250,000 for 7 Bug Bounties.


## Where Can You Buy Lido DAO (LDO)?

Lido DAO (LDO) is available for purchase on major cryptocurrency exchanges including [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/), [Coinbase](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinbase-exchange/), [KuCoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kucoin/), [Kraken](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kraken/) and more.

Binance

Lido DAO

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Binance Chain Wallet

SolFlare

Backpack

Phantom

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

UNUS SED LEO

Uniswap

Axie Infinity

The Graph

Bitget Token

Ethereum Name Service

Pepe

The Sandbox

FLOKI

Mog Coin

Quant

Maker

Charged Particles

jeffry

IX Swap

BasedAI

Brainers

Optimism (OP) is a layer-two blockchain on top of Ethereum. Optimism benefits from the security of the Ethereum mainnet and helps scale the Ethereum ecosystem by using optimistic rollups. That means transactions are trustlessly recorded on Optimism but ultimately secured on Ethereum.

Optimism is one of the biggest scaling solutions for Ethereum with over $500 million in TVL. It is home to 97 protocols, the biggest being Synthetix (SNX), a derivatives exchange, Uniswap (UNI), a DEX, and Velodrome (VELO), an AMM. Users can begin their journey on Optimism by adding the chain on their Metamask and bridging tokens like ETH to the L2. On May 31, 2022, Optimism conducted a highly anticipated airdrop of its OP token.

Optimism

Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer-two (L2) scaling solution. It uses optimistic rollups to achieve its goal of improving speed, scalability and cost-efficiency on Ethereum. Arbitrum benefits from the security and compatibility of Ethereum. Another benefit is the higher throughput and lower fees compared to Ethereum. That is made possible thanks to moving most of the computation and storage load off-chain.

Arbitrum’s native token is called ARB and is used for governance. Offchain Labs, the developers behind Arbitrum, announced the shift to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure — the Arbitrum DAO. ARB holders can vote on proposals that affect the features, protocol upgrades, funds allocation and election of a Security Council.

Arbitrum has an ambitious roadmap for 2023, which includes: Launching its own layer-three solution called Orbit; Enabling developers to deploy programs written in popular programming languages like Rust, C++, and more using Stylus; Expanding its validator set to include more independent institutional validators; Moving its protocol to layer two with Arbitrum One.

On March 16, 2023,  Arbitrum announced their highly anticipated airdrop of ARB. The token will be airdropped to early users and DAOs building on Arbitrum, with 12.75% of the total supply to be distributed. Recipients were rewarded on a point-based system depending on their interaction with the Arbitrum network until a cutoff date of March 1, 2023. The token generation event is on March 23, 2023.

Arbitrum

Aave

Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol — respectively a decentralized organization and a software platform, both based on the Ethereum blockchain — that allows users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin.

Initially conceived in 2015 and fully launched in December 2017, Maker is a project whose task is to operate DAI, a community-managed decentralized cryptocurrency with a stable value soft-pegged to the US dollar.

MKR tokens act as a kind of voting share for the organization that manages DAI; while they do not pay dividends to their holders, they do give the holders voting rights over the development of Maker Protocol and are expected to appreciate in value in accordance with the success of DAI itself.

The Maker ecosystem is one of the earliest projects on the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene: the industry that seeks to build decentralized financial products on top of smart-contract-enabled blockchains, such as Ethereum.

Immutable positions itself as the first layer-two scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. According to Immutable, its blockchain does away with Ethereum’s limitations like low scalability, a poor user experience, illiquidity, and a slow developer experience. Instead, users benefit from instant trading and massive scalability while enjoying zero gas fees for minting and trading NFTs without compromising user or asset security.

Thanks to this technology, users will be able to create and distribute assets like ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens on a massive scale. Chris Clay, the game Director of Gods Unchained, a project already building on Immutable, stated that Immutable allows Gods Unchained to implement a new meta-system that was previously impossible. In this fashion, Immutable aims to create a world-class experience for users and developers alike.

Immutable

Aptos is a Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain that employs a novel smart contract programming language called Move, a Rust-based programming language that was independently developed by Meta (formerly Facebook)’s Diem blockchain engineers.

Aptos’s vision is a blockchain that brings mainstream adoption to web3 and empowers an ecosystem of DApps to solve real-world user problems.

The PoS blockchain can achieve a theoretical transaction throughput of over 150,000 transactions per second (tps) through parallel execution.

In March 2022, Aptos raised $200 million in a seed round led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Other crypto heavyweights like Tiger Global and Multicoin Capital took part in the funding round. Fast forward to July, the startup raised another $200 million in a Series A round with participation from Dragonfly, Apollo Global, Franklin Templeton, Animoca, Jump Crypto and others.

Two months later, Binance Labs made a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount in Aptos.

On Oct. 18, 2022, Aptos announced the mainnet launch, while the Aptos genesis occurred on Oct. 12, 2022.

Aptos

NEAR Protocol is a layer-one blockchain that was designed as a community-run cloud computing platform and that eliminates some of the limitations that have been bogging competing blockchains, such as low transaction speeds, low throughput and poor interoperability. This provides the ideal environment for DApps and creates a developer and user-friendly platform. For instance, NEAR uses human-readable account names, unlike the cryptographic wallet addresses common to Ethereum. NEAR also introduces unique solutions to scaling problems and has its own consensus mechanism called “Doomslug.”

NEAR Protocol is being built by the NEAR Collective, its community that is updating the initial code and releasing updates to the ecosystem. Its declared goal is to build a platform that is “secure enough to manage high value assets like money or identity and performant enough to make them useful for everyday people.”

Flux, a protocol that allows developers to create markets based on assets, commodities, real-world events, and Mintbase, an NFT minting platform are examples of projects being built on NEAR Protocol.

NEAR Protocol

Synthetix is building a decentralized liquidity provisioning protocol that any protocol can tap into for various purposes. Its deep liquidity and low fees serve as a backend for many exciting protocols on both Optimism and Ethereum. Many user-facing protocols in the Synthetix ecosystem, such as Kwenta (Spot and Futures), Lyra (Options), Polynomial (Automated Options), and 1inch & Curve (Atomic Swaps), tap into Synthetix liquidity to power their protocols. Synthetix is built on Optimism and Ethereum mainnet. The Synthetix Network is collateralized by SNX, ETH, and LUSD, enabling the issuance of synthetic assets (Synths). Synths track and provide returns on the underlying asset without requiring one to directly hold the asset. This pooled collateral enables an array of on-chain, composable financial instruments backed by liquidity from Synthetix. Some of the most exciting upcoming releases from SNX are Perps V2, which hopes to enable low-fee on-chain futures trading through the usage of off-chain oracles, and Synthetix V3, which aims to rebuild the protocol to achieve its earliest goal, being a fully permissionless derivatives protocol. Learn more about Synthetix on their blog or by joining the SNX Discord.

The platform aims to broaden the cryptocurrency space by introducing non-blockchain assets, providing access to a more robust financial market.

Synthetix

Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.

An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading.

Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges.

Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges.

In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.

Injective (INJ) is a blockchain built for finance. It is an open, interoperable layer-one blockchain powering next-generation DeFi applications, including decentralized spot and derivatives exchanges, prediction markets, lending protocols, and more.

Injective uniquely provides powerful core financial infrastructure primitives that applications can leverage, including a fully decentralized MEV-resistant on-chain orderbook. In addition, all forms of financial markets such as spot, perpetual, futures and options are fully on-chain. The decentralized cross-chain bridging infrastructure is compatible with Ethereum, IBC-enabled blockchains, and non EVM chains such as Solana.

Injective also provides a next-generation, highly interoperable smart contract platform based on CosmWasm, with advanced interchain capabilities. Injective is custom built with the Cosmos SDK and utilizes Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, providing instant transaction finality with the ability to sustain lightning-fast performance (25,000+ TPS).

The Injective ecosystem includes 100+ projects and over 150,000 community members globally. Injective is backed by a group of prominent investors such as Binance, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto and Mark Cuban.

Injective

GMX is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual cryptocurrency futures with up to 50X leverage on popular cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH and more. The platform launched in September 2021 as Gambit Exchange. To date, GMX has a total trading volume of over $130B and 283K total users, making it the leading derivatives DEX on Arbitrum and Avalanche.

GMX runs on the Arbitrum and the Avalanche blockchain. These ecosystems are connected to the exchange via Synapse — a cross-chain bridge.

RenderToken (RNDR) is a distributed GPU rendering network built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, aiming to connect artists and studios in need of GPU compute power with mining partners willing to rent their GPU capabilities out. Conceived in 2009 by OTOY, inc. CEO Jules Urbach and launched in 2017, RNDR held its first public token sale in October of that same year, followed by a private sale period lasting from January 2018 – May 2018, wherein a total of 117,843,239 RNDR were sold at a price of 1 RNDR = $0.25 USD equivalent of token.
During the private sale period, early adopters were onboarded onto the RNDR Beta Testnet, where beta node operators and artists worked collaboratively with the RNDR team in building and testing the network, up until its public launch on April 27th 2020.

Render

Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer for smart contracts; it enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as an asset and settle transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Bitcoin is the largest, most valuable, and most durable decentralized asset. The Stacks layer unlocks $500B in BTC capital using the Bitcoin L1 as settlement for decentralized applications.

Stacks has knowledge of the full Bitcoin state, thanks to its Proof of Transfer consensus and Clarity language, enabling it to read from Bitcoin at any time.

All transactions on the Stacks layer are automatically hashed and settled on the Bitcoin L1. Stacks blocks are secured by 100% Bitcoin hashpower. In order to re-order Stacks blocks/transactions, an attacker would have to reorg Bitcoin.

Stacks

Celestia

Pendle

Founded in 2017, Chainlink is a blockchain abstraction layer that enables universally connected smart contracts. Through a decentralized oracle network, Chainlink allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.

The Chainlink Network is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors and more. The company focuses on ensuring that decentralized participation is guaranteed for all node operators and users looking to contribute to the network.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Chainlink.

In a nutshell, Cosmos bills itself as a project that solves some of the “hardest problems” facing the blockchain industry. It aims to offer an antidote to “slow, expensive, unscalable and environmentally harmful” proof-of-work protocols, like those used by Bitcoin, by offering an ecosystem of connected blockchains.

The project’s other goals include making blockchain technology less complex and difficult for developers thanks to a modular framework that demystifies decentralized apps. Last but not least, an Interblockchain Communication protocol makes it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other — preventing fragmentation in the industry.

Cosmos’ origins can be dated back to 2014, when Tendermint, a core contributor to the network, was founded. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published — and a token sale was held the following year. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help to keep the Cosmos Hub, the project’s flagship blockchain, secure. This cryptocurrency also has a role in the network’s governance.

Cosmos

Sui is a groundbreaking layer-1 blockchain platform designed to support the needs of global adoption by offering a secure, powerful, and scalable development platform. At its core, Sui leverages a novel object-centric data model and the secure Move programming language to address inefficiencies prevalent in existing blockchain architectures.

On top of strong technical foundations, Sui prioritizes user experience by eliminating barriers commonly associated with blockchain interactions. Through innovations like zkLogin, sponsored transactions, and programmable transaction blocks, Sui creates a higher standard for user experience within Web3 by ensuring applications are accessible and user-friendly.

Filecoin is a decentralized storage system that aims to “store humanity’s most important information.” The project raised $205 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, and initially planned a launch date for mid-2019. However, the launch date for the Filecoin mainnet was pushed back until block 148,888, which is expected in mid-October 2020.

The project was first described back in 2014 as an incentive layer for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer storage network where users pay for data storage and distribution services in $FIL. Filecoin is open protocol and backed by a blockchain that records commitments made by the network’s participants, with transactions made using FIL, the blockchain’s native currency. The blockchain is based on both proof-of-replication and proof-of-spacetime.

Filecoin is open-source and decentralized, which means that all governance is in the hands of the community. On the Filecoin platform, developers have the opportunity to create cloud file storage services like Dropbox or iCloud. Anyone can join Filecoin and start storing their data or earn money by providing space for someone else's funds. The creators of Filecoin opted for their blockchain technology to run the network and their token with their own consensus.

$FIL is the native currency of Filecoin that powers the entire network and all processes. Clients pay for transactions in FIL tokens. Miners place FIL as collateral, guaranteeing their services.

The developers claim that Filecoin solves the problem of inefficient file storage and retrieval. Customers can find the right solution with an efficient set of tools and its core development, IPFS.

Filecoin

Polygon (previously Matic Network) is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building multiple types of applications.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Polygon Matic.

Using Polygon, one can create optimistic rollup chains, ZK rollup chains, stand alone chains or any other kind of infra required by the developer.

Polygon effectively transforms Ethereum into a full-fledged multi-chain system (aka Internet of Blockchains). This multi-chain system is akin to other ones such as Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche etc. with the advantages of Ethereum’s security, vibrant ecosystem and openness.

The $MATIC token will continue to exist and will play an increasingly important role, securing the system and enabling governance.

Polygon (formerly Matic Network) is a Layer 2 scaling solution backed by Binance and Coinbase. The project seeks to stimulate mass adoption of cryptocurrencies by resolving the problems of scalability on many blockchains.

Polygon combines the Plasma Framework and the proof-of-stake blockchain architecture. The Plasma framework used by Polygon as proposed by the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, allows for the easy execution of scalable and autonomous smart contracts.

Nothing will change for the existing ecosystem built on the Plasma-POS chain. With Polygon, new features are being built around the existing proven technology to expand the ability to cater to diverse needs from the developer ecosystem. Polygon will continue to develop the core technology so that it can scale to a larger ecosystem.

Polygon boasts of up to 65,000 transactions per second on a single side chain, along with a respectable block confirmation time of less than two seconds. The framework also allows for the creation of globally available decentralized financial applications on a single foundational blockchain.

The Plasma framework gives Polygon the potential of housing an unlimited number of decentralized applications on their infrastructure without experiencing the normal drawbacks common on proof-of-work blockchains. So far, Polygon has attracted more than 50 DApps to its PoS-secured Ethereum sidechain.

MATIC, the native tokens of Polygon, is an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens are used for payment services on Polygon and as a settlement currency between users who operate within the Polygon ecosystem. The transaction fees on Polygon sidechains are also paid in MATIC tokens.