Lucio Tato is an Argentinian programmer who entered the crypto space in 2020. He is the co-founder of Meta Pool and Marinade Finance.^[1]

Education

Tato graduated from the National Technological Unversity, Argentina, in 1993 with a BS in system engineering. ^[1]

Career

Tato started as a consultant at Cargill in 1996, where he designed and developed interfaces between internal systems and JD Edwards, enhancing data exchange and integration processes. ^[1]

From 1997 to 2003, he consulted for Vinterc, contributing to financial projects in the province of San Juan. He also utilized internet technology to develop integrated systems, addressing government administration requirements and modernizing financial processes. ^[1]

In 2005, Tato became CTO at Sig SRL, where he developed and implemented various systems, including the Public Housing Development Integrated System (SIVIV) for the province of Formosa. Later, in 2011, he became managing owner at Technogob.com, overseeing the development and implementation of large-scale ERP systems tailored for government administrations. ^[1]

Tato entered the crypto space when he founded Narwallets.com in July 2020. Specializing in NEAR’s blockchain development, this project focused on advancing blockchain projects and technologies. Tato managed project operations and contributed to NEAR’s blockchain initiatives. ^[1]

In August 2020, he co-founded Meta Pool, a venture focusing on Web3 technologies primarily emphasizing developing liquid staking solutions for NEAR blockchain. A few months later, he co-founded Marinade Finance, the first liquid staking DAO on the Solana blockchain. ^[1]

Interviews

In 2022, Lucio Tato, co-founder of Meta Pool, discussed his views on liquid staking in an interview at the Staking Summit. He highlighted the need for user-friendly liquid staking protocols to address shortcomings in native staking mechanisms on various layer-one networks.

“I am in love with staking, especially liquid staking. To be honest, we are trying to fix what native staking is. The mechanisms for staking in many layer-ones are not user-friendly. Liquid staking protocols tend to be almost infrastructure. For example, Meta Pool is what liquid staking should have been from the start.”

Tato emphasized Meta Pool's approach to automatically assess validator performance, distributing stakes based on APY and low commissions to avoid concentration and enhance network security.

“The problem with native staking is the unfriendly interface. To address this, I created a liquid staking contract for myself, which became Meta Pool…Meta Pool addresses the concentration issue in staking. People tend to stake on the first validator they see, leading to network weaknesses. We have an automatic validator score checking all validators' performance, distributing stake to the best ones to avoid concentration.”

He criticized Lido's concentration issue, stressing the importance of decentralization and censorship resistance.

“The issue with Lido, a major liquid staking protocol, is concentration. If Lido becomes the main protocol in Solana or Near, Ethereum token holders will decide on the security of other networks. Meta Pool avoids this by automatically distributing stake based on validator performance.”

Despite the low uptake, Tato anticipated gradual growth in liquid staking, identifying regulatory hurdles as a key obstacle to institutional adoption.

“The low uptake on Near is due to a large portion of the community being institutions or early investors with locked assets. Meta Pool aims to provide a path for institutions to enter liquid staking by addressing compliance and legal aspects.”