key takeaways
- Blockdaemon and Stakewise have announced Harbor, a liquid staking service for the ETH and Ethereum blockchains.
- Institutional customers who stake their crypto will receive a derivative token that they can use in certain DeFi protocols.
- Although some other institutional liquid-taking services exist, Alluvial and Lido Harbor are among its competitors.
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Two notable blockchain firms have announced the launch of Harbor, a liquid staking protocol for the Ethereum blockchain.
Harbor is now live on mainnet
Blockdaemon and StakeWise this week launched the mainnet version of Harbor on June 6th, following an earlier testnet phase in March.
Harbor offers a mortgage service aimed at financial institutions and tech companies. Unlike other cryptocurrency staking methods, Harbor’s approach gives customers the ability to earn staking rewards without losing access to their funds during the lockup period.
Harbor will initially work with the Ethereum blockchain and accept deposits of its native cryptocurrency token, ETH.
Participants who bet ETH will receive a derivative Harbor Token. They can use these tokens for lending, borrowing, writing options and interest rate swaps with the permitted DeFi platform.
Harbor also aims to be completely safe and compliant. Its userbase will be made up of KYC-approved participants. Insurance cuts, multiple code audits and fully secured smart contract keys will additionally ensure that funds remain safe.
Blockdaemon founder and CEO Konstantin Richter emphasized Harbour’s unique approach, calling it “the first ETH institutional-grade liquid staking solution available on the market today.”
Stakewise co-founder Kirill Kutakov similarly stated that Harbor’s launch is “the first time traditional institutions can participate in the staking and DeFi they are accustomed to.”
Liquid staking is on the rise
Although some other staking services currently offer liquid staking as a harbour, other services with competing features are on the way. Coinbase Cloud and Figment are backing a liquid staking project called Alluvial, which was still under development as of May.
Non-institutional liquid staking services are also popular. Lido, a DeFi platform, is responsible for a large portion of the liquidity stake on Ethereum. Rocket Pool is another highly regarded option.
Still, Harbor will attract a lot of value for the money its operators have earned so far.
Stackwise claims to have handed over 50,000 ETH ($93 million) to its validators to date. Blockdaemon, on the other hand, claims to have delegated $11 billion to its own validators.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this article owns BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies.
