We are thrilled to announce the release of native Ethereum staking in Ledger Live, powered by Kiln. Ledger Live users can now participate in Ethereum’s security and earn rewards for doing so.
The ETH staking opportunity
In a Proof-of-Stake blockchain like Ethereum, staking consists of locking native tokens to earn the right to help secure the chain via a validator. Validators review transactions on the blockchain, and bundle transactions to propose new blocks. Through this activity, validators earn rewards for the stakers who committed part of their collateral. It is often cited as the most natural yield feature in crypto as the value originates from the blockchain native currency’s inflation and a share of transaction fees, and there is no counterparty risk.
Ethereum is the largest PoS blockchain by market cap and developer activity. However, only about 21.97%* of the ETH supply is currently staked, in contrast with 50-80% staking ratios on other PoS blockchains. This shows it’s only just the beginning for Ethereum staking.
With Ethereum’s recent successful transition to a Proof of Stake consensus (“The Merge”) this aspect of the protocol’s development has been significantly de-risked and we are observing a large influx of customers wishing to stake ETH natively.
Ledger's top priority is to create easy-to-use solutions without compromising the best-in-class security model. In partnership with Kiln, Ledger is now offering a native staking solution in addition to Lido's offer of liquid staking. It is the best alternative if you want to earn rewards while contributing to the decentralization of the network.
“We’re thrilled to have Kiln integrated into the Ledger Live app. The Merge brought new opportunities for staking in the Ethereum ecosystem, and now with Kiln we’re excited to offer truly secure staking to millions of users. Ledger Live users can now deploy their own validators and stake Ethereum fully on-chain, all while benefiting from the protection of Ledger’s legendary security.”
– Jean-François Rochet, VP, International Development at Ledger
Why stake with Ledger Live & Kiln On-Chain?
A fully on-chain staking solution, coupled with the most-secure self-custody devices (Ledger Nano), makes a lot of sense for users. It empowers them to deploy their validators and earn rewards without any third-party prevention, or managing of rewards in an opaque way.
The rewards distribution is directly managed “on-chain” through the Kiln withdrawal smart contract, making repartition fully transparent and eliminating the need for the user, or a third-party, to gather and redistribute rewards.
In short, thanks to this new product launch, Ledger users holding 32ETH or more can benefit from:
Native yields ranging from 4%* GRR** on deposited Ethereum with Kiln’s MEV-ready validators.
Total security: clear signing and always secured through your Nano.
Ease-of-use: 1-click staking with a clear and simple interface.
What happens behind the scenes?
ETH is deposited into a tailor-made staking smart contract deployed by Kiln, which has been audited by Halborn and the Donjon (Ledger security team).
This smart contract issues a deposit into the Beacon Chain deposit contract, linking the user’s funds to a validator for each 32 ETH deposit.
Validators are automatically spun up in the Kiln infrastructure.
Validators perform attestations and block proposals on the Beacon Chain, earning rewards for the Ledger user.
When Ledger users wish to withdraw, they can do so with a simple click on the dApp, and Kiln’s commission is automatically levied on-chain by the smart contract. Please note that withdrawals will only be available in a future Ethereum upgrade.
“Our mission at Kiln is to make ETH staking seamless and secure for everyone. We are grateful to the Ledger team for approaching us in 2021 to work together on the ETH staking project. This integration will allow Ledger users worldwide to secure the Ethereum network and be rewarded for it.”
Choose the amount of ETH you want to stake (it must be a multiple of 32ETH in this first version)
Click on the “Stake” button and that's it!
Visualize your rewards directly on the Rewards tab
About Kiln
With over $500m stake under management, Kiln has a particularly strong track record on Ethereum as we run 2% of the network that includes 8,500+ validators with 0 slashing. We offer a rewards guarantee SLA, ensuring a return of 99% of the network-average GRR of ETH staking. Our product is non-custodial and our smart contracts are fully audited by Halborn.
About Ledger
Founded in 2014, Ledger is the global platform for digital assets and web3. Over 20% of the world’s crypto assets are secured through Ledger Nanos. Headquartered in Paris and Vierzon, with offices in London, New-York, Singapore and Portland, Ledger has a team of more than 700 professionals developing a variety of products and services to enable individuals and companies to securely buy, store, swap and manage crypto assets - including the Ledger hardware wallets line with more than 5 million units already sold in more than 180 countries.
The staking reward rate will fluctuate over time based on many factors, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns . See this post for more details on expected future yields.
**GRR stands for Gross Reward Rate, a term commonly used in staking. It represents the total rewards earned by staking participants before any fees or deductions are taken into account.
