Lido is a liquid staking solution for Beacon chain backed by industry-leading staking providers. Lido lets users stake their ETH - without locking assets or maintaining infrastructure - whilst participating in on-chain activities, e.g. lending. Lido goal is to solve the problems associated with initial Beacon chain staking - illiquidity, immovability and accessibility - making staked ETH liquid and allowing for participation with any amount of ETH to improve security of the Ethereum network.

When staking with Lido, users receive stETH tokens which are issued 1:1 to their initial stake. stETH balances can be used like regular ETH to earn and lending rewards, and are updated on a daily basis to reflect your ETH staking rewards. Note that there are no lock-ups or minimum deposits when staking with Lido.

What is liquid staking?

Liquid staking protocols allow users to earn staking rewards without locking assets or maintaining staking infrastructure. Users can deposit tokens and receive tradable liquid tokens in return. The DAO-controlled smart contract stakes these tokens using elected staking providers. As users funds are controlled by the DAO, staking providers never have direct access to the users' assets.

LDO is an Ethereum token granting governance rights in the Lido DAO. The Lido DAO governs a set of liquid staking protocols, decides on key parameters (e.g., fees) and executes protocol upgrades to ensure efficiency and stability. By holding the LDO token, one is granted voting rights within the Lido DAO. The more LDO locked in a user’s voting contract, the greater the decision-making power the voter gets.