1. Abstract; TLDR

Liquid staking protocols provide you the benefits of passive income through staking while still allowing you to retain the liquidity of your assets. Traditionally speaking, your staked funds are locked and cannot be used for anything throughout the duration of that lock up period. Through liquid staking your liquidity is returned to you via what’s called a derivative token, hence the name liquid staking derivatives. This liquidity allows you to continue earning your passive income while providing the flexibility to explore other DeFi opportunities using that derivative token.

However, as is true in any facet of finance, most people do not want to actively manage their portfolio. Maybe they are not educated enough to make the most informed decision or maybe they simply want to spend their time elsewhere. In any case, the $LSD protocol works in a similar manner to an investment management group for liquid staking technology. The protocol acts as the middle man to disperse your funds into liquid staking protocols via automated proprietary smart contracts that analyze and review the best potential yield options available automatically for you (see section 6).

Our primary focus is on retaining the decentralization of the ETH network while innovating on top of existing liquid staking protocols. Post Shanghai, staking ratios of the total circulating ETH supply will drastically increase. Those wanting to stake will look for different protocols and platforms that can provide them that service. We must, if at all possible, not allow a single protocol or platform to manage a majority of the ETH supply. This will theoretically remove the decentralization of the network and allow one party or a small group of parties to control the entire network (see section 7).

$LSD is here to provide you stable, passive income while allowing you to stay liquid. However, our overall objective is to increase the security of the blockchain and protect it from centralization risks. The core mission is much larger than just innovating upon and increasing the adoption of liquid staking. We encourage you take a deep dive into the rest of this document but if you do not wish to, at least leave with this takeaway:

The evolution of DeFi and passive income opportunities has brought us to the doorstep of the coming explosion of liquid staking on the ETH network. Those that provide a platform to manage, implement and innovate on these services will see large growth in 2023 and beyond while decreasing the likelihood that a single entity maintains a majority stake in the network.