Puffer Finance Secures Grant to Secure Validator Operations Through Novel Slash-Resistant Technology

Puffer Finance has announced that it has secured a grant from the Ethereum Foundation to help decentralize Ethereum’s validator set. The grant will be used to support the open-source project, Secure-Signer, a remote-signing tool designed to increase validator key security and prevent the validator from getting slashed due to software bugs or user errors. 

Solo stakers, the independent and decentralized validators, are disproportionally affected by slashing due to their lack of capital relative to centralized staking operations. Reducing solo staking operational risk is a huge win for decentralization which is essential for Ethereum’s security. The team at Puffer Finance believes that Secure-Signer will be a win for solo stakers as well as the wider staking industry. As more validators use it to protect themselves, they additionally reduce the overall penalty the rest of the validators would receive in the event of a high-correlation slashing event. 

To further promote decentralization, Puffer Finance is developing a capital-efficient and completely permissionless liquid staking protocol designed to lower the barrier of entry for at-home-stakers and compete with centralized LSPs in terms of rewards. The protocol utilizes anti-slashing technology and provides a novel solution to inactivity penalties, reducing the Puffer’s node operator capital requirement to just a cumulative 2 Ether, allowing for more participation. 

Looking ahead, Puffer Finance believes the future of Ethereum is headed towards mass adoption via ZK-rollups, catalyzed by emerging re-staking technology, which will allow validators to earn additional revenue. To help achieve a truly decentralized Ethereum ecosystem, Puffer Finance is supporting decentralized LSPs now to alleviate centralization pressure on layer-2s in the future. Puffer’s Testnet will be launched soon. 

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