Is Lido DAO’s staking dominance a silent threat to Ethereum’s decentralization?In a pivotal move, the P2P team managing Lido Finance’s deployment on Solana has submitted a funding proposal to the Lido DAO community. The team seeks $1.5 million over the next 12 months to sustain and grow the project, thereby avoiding the potential cessation of operations.
Lido Finance’s comprehensive funding proposal
The funding proposal outlines a comprehensive plan for the project’s sustainability and growth. It includes a development retainer of $200,000 per quarter, an annual marketing budget of $600,000, and $100,000 annually for customer support. Yuri Mediakov, senior product manager at P2P, stated that the financial support would enable the team to capture more than 1% of Solana’s staking market share and further develop the product.
Since taking ownership of Lido on Solana from Chorus One in March 2022, the P2P team has made significant strides in both product and business development. They have updated the smart contract, reworked the frontend user experience, and grown the protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) from 954k SOL to 4.1M SOL. The team has also increased the number of DeFi protocol integrations from 4 to 22 and launched a referral program with 21 trusted partners.
Two scenarios: Expansion or sunsetting
The proposal presents two scenarios for the project’s future. The first involves continuing development with financial support from Lido DAO, aiming to offer exceptional product development, analytics, and marketing activities. The second scenario, akin to what happened with Lido on Polkadot and Kusama, involves initiating a sunsetting process. This would mean gradually discontinuing support for Lido on Solana by February 2024 if the requested financial backing is not provided.
Lido Finance is a dominant player in the liquid staking market on Ethereum, with $14 billion in total value locked. However, its presence on Solana is relatively smaller, facing stiff competition from players like Marinade Finance and Jito. The funding proposal comes at a critical juncture, as decisions made now are expected to shape the future of Lido on Solana.
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