Stake DAO is a Proof-of-Stake infrastructure provider and validator that allows users to stake crypto and earn rewards on Ethereum.

Protocol

Stake DAO is an asset management protocol built on Ethereum. Stake DAO was founded by Stake Capital and launched in 2020. The platform also supports other blockchains including Polkadot, Solana, and Near.^[7]

Liquid Lockers

Stake DAO Liquid Lockers allow users to use power from lockable tokens (e.g. FXS, ANGLE, CRV) without having to compromise on yield, voting power, or liquidity. Anyone that supplies assets can get the maximum yield boost while retaining full voting rights and benefits of their token's native protocol, as well as the ability to boost voting rights, on-sell them, and exit their position back to the underlying token.^[8]

With Liquid Lockers, users can lock the native token in the Liquid Locker and receive a sdTOKEN in return. For example, users can lock their FXS via Liquid Lockers, receiving sdFXS tokens in return. For every one FXS locked, the locker will mint one sdFXS. This architecture allows sdFXS holders to vote, off-chain via Snapshot, for the FXS gauges allocation on Frax, once per week.^[9]

Stake DAO has another product built on top of the Liquid Lockers, its own Bribe Platform created to achieve maximum profit on veToken votes and to be a way to value voting rights fully.^[10]

Tokenomics

Stake DAO Token

The SDT is the token earned by users who deposit their tokens into the DAO and functions simultaneously as the native token of the platform. After the expiration of a set time the SDT tokens deposited are distributed to all users in a manner proportional to the number of fees individual deposits generated as revenue for the DAO platform. To receive and claim their portion of the DAO fees, holders of the token would then need to stake their earned SDT. Staking on Stake DAO is available for Elrond, Solana, Avalanche, Harmony, and Livepeer.^[4][12]

veSDT

veSDT is the governance token of Stake DAO. It is an indicative token that represents having locked your SDT for a set amount of time. The longer a user locks (up to 4 years), the greater their boost and benefits across the platform. veSDT also generates points for Stake DAO NFTs.^[13]

Strategies

Stake DAO's existing strategies for generating passive income are Liquid Locker Strategies, Passive Strategies, Options Strategies, and Premium Strategies. They work by depositing investors' tokens into liquidity pools on the Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Chain markets' decentralized finance protocols. These protocols require liquidity of tokens to ‘make markets’, i.e. to run and process collective trading activity at reasonably stable prices. Whoever provides said liquidity via staking, the protocols offer them percentage-based rewards and more. Stake DAO periodically harvests these rewards and distributes them to its community of lockers, resulting in passive income. A small portion of the rewards (15%) harvested from each strategy is taken as a performance fee by Stake DAO and periodically distributed back to the community.^[11]

NFTs

Each NFT grants its holder access to an exclusive strategy, power-up, or other privileges on Stake DAO, depending on the type of NFT and its rarity. Six NFT types - Tempest, Pythia, Leviathan, Tamiel, Stark, and Pondergeist have been released as of November 2022.^[14]

All the Stake DAO NFTs follow the ERC1155 standard. Each series has 100 common, 10 rare and 1 unique pieces.^[15]

Partners

B2B

• SwissBorg
• Zerion
• Alchemy
• Frax
• The Graph

Ecosystem

• Ramp network
• Paraswap
• 1inch
• Archer
• Forbole

Architecture

• Yearn
• Pickle
• Badger
• Curve
• Sushiswap
• Convex^[6]

Stake DAO Academy

Stake DAO Academy was launched by Stake DAO to make sure their users understand all the terms that the platform deals with. Academy has a goal to be the comprehensive resource for users learning needs in the crypto space.^[16]