About Stader (SD)

Stader Labs, a staking platform startup, is said to be building a crucial middleware infrastructure layer for multiple Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, allowing for a multi-chain fountain of yield-generating opportunities.

Stader’s native token is SD. It’s used for governance and as a means for running Stader smart contracts (via staked SD tokens) and as a reward for liquidity pool provisioning.

Stader is trying to be linchpin connecting retail crypto users, exchanges and custodians, as it is building "extremely modular smart contracts, so third parties can leverage its components and build custom solutions," CoinGecko said.

The project counts at least nine blockchains on which it is developing capabilities. These include Solana, Ethereum 2.0, Avalanche, Terra 2.0, Near, BNB, Fantom, Polygon and Hedera Hashgraph.

 Staking is a way for holders to put their digital assets to work earning passive income, locking away coins – in exchange for a yield – to assist PoS chains in need of trustworthy participants to conduct operations and maintain security.

 Stader's multi-chain liquid staking protocol lets users unlock their locked, reward-earning tokens by way of a mirror token, or liquid staking derivative, equivalent in value to the native token staked, Stader has explained. "This mirror token can then be used across DeFi protocols across a blockchain to earn additional yield over and above staking rewards," a Stader Labs post said.

Maximizing passive income opportunities and seamlessly transcending barriers – these are the primary goals being pursued in a time of fast-moving DeFi innovations moving well beyond relatively limited-in-use wrapped tokens.

Stader facilitates the staking of its own native token, SD, intrinsically tied to the mechanics of the protocol. This means that when a user stakes via the Stader platform, a percentage fee is deducted (ranging between 3-10%, as determined by governance factors) from the rewards generated, with this then rewarded to those who stake the SD token. As well as having a primary token, Stader also has an auto-compounding equivalent, xSD, that is provided to users after they stake SD. The xSD token retains governance rights, access to preferential delegations, slashing insurance, and liquidity pools.

Aside from providing staking tools to their own user base, Stader also supports the development and deployment of staking solutions courtesy of other protocols. Having recognized the complexity of providing a staking platform that encompasses every variant of the technology, Stader’s modular smart contracts grant superior flexibility to protocols as they develop on the blockchain. In an effort to deliver on its mission to “onboard the next billion into the staking ecosystem,” Stader seeks to serve as a hub for development, as well as a comprehensive solution in itself, to ultimately provide a staking ecosystem that lets users access every possible passive income maximization tool.

In the long term, Stader has dedicated itself to nurturing third parties entering the staking ecosystem. Having dedicated a portion of their total token supply to incentivizing and funding those building on the Stader infrastructure, various projects have already been onboarded, including AAVE, Balancer, Beefy Finance, and Quickswap.

When was SD created and how much was it worth?

Headquartered in Bangalore and Singapore, Stader Labs was founded as a staking platform venture in April of 2021 by Sidhartha Doddipalli, Dheeraj Borra and Amitej Gajjala.

In January of 2022, Stader raised $12.5 million in a funding round led by Three Arrows Capital. Early success was tied to the staking of Terra's LUNA. Stader's first smart contract was launched in November of 2021 on Terra which later, in spring of 2022, collapsed and forked into two chains. Around the end of November of 2021, the earliest SD stakers could farm tokens at a price of $0.43.

How is the price of SD determined?

The total token supply of the SD token is capped at 150 million, with the vast portions of these distributed to incentivize third parties to build on the network. Stader has dedicated 36% to rewards and farming, 17% to the team and its advisors, 4% to public sales, 11% to the ecosystem fund, 15% to the DAO Fund, and 17% to private sales.

Stader has a total fixed supply of 150,000,000 tokens, with vast portions of this pool dedicated to fostering the ecosystem, funding the DAO, and providing incentivization to its users and those building upon the ecosystem. In order to further generate value, Stader relies on the staking of its native token and the adoption of its staking technology, thus expanding the ecosystem and generating rewards for the community and inflating its value.

Why does SD have value?

SD value owes to supply/demand dynamics and to a large extent wi9ll depend on more blockchain projects building upon Stader’s modular smart contracts. If more users flock to the Stader platform, and begin to stake tokens and to grow the ecosystem, the more SD value increases.

 As users stake, Stader deducts a 3-10% fee from any rewards earned through staking, with these funds being put back into the project itself and acting as an incentivization to validators, projects building on Stader, and those who stake the SD and xSD tokens, respectively.

Is SD secure?

In March of 2022, Stader successfully underwent a series of smart contract audits courtesy of three security firms, Halborn, Peckshield and Certik, ahead of the deployment of a yield generator, Degen Vaults.

Stader continues to collaborate with the trio who act as their permanent audit and security partners.

As of October 2022, Stader has undergone at least ten successful audits across multiple chains. Additionally, Stader uses multi-sig admin accounts to change smart contract parameters to ensure maximal security.

Additionally, Stader undergoes smart contract parameter changes on an interim basis to maintain security.

Still, despite all of the aforementioned risk mitigation measures, in August of 2022, Stader’s NEAR liquidity pool was targeted through vulnerabilities in the smart contract and more than $800,000 worth of funds was stolen from the platform.

What are the main benefits of SD?

• Driven by a strategy that focuses on delegators first, Stader is designed to offer a convenient and safe way to maximize user returns on staking, one reviewer, Everything Blockchain, stated. "By deploying curated vaults of Validators within a specific network’s Validator ecosystem," the reviewer added, "it assures maximized yields."
• Stader simplifies the staking process. And it solves for inferior decentralization, that is, when an overabundance of voting power rests with too few validators.
• Stader’s governance is determined by a DAO, which sets rewards policies, while steering the future of the platform. Issues of importance could include things like the timing of when the tokens reserved for the DAO should be released. 
• Many staking platforms are confined to one specific blockchain. However, Stader’s multichain approach removes the hassle of navigating multiple platforms and wallets, instead providing an all-inclusive staking solution that prioritizes accessibility.

What do critics say about SD?

Discussing Stader, Everything Blockchain called attention to the lofty aspirations of bringing simplicity and greater decentralization to multi-chain staking, emphasizing that were this to somehow be pulled off it would be “nothing short of magic;” but as of now, features and products still have to show, over a long-term period, that all of this hype is warranted. In other words, it’s still too early to tell.