Beyond Restaking Hype: Technical Talk on Cheetah Labs' Restaking Protocol

In a groundbreaking presentation at Breakpoint 2024, Lucas Bruder, co-founder of Cheetah Labs, unveiled the company's innovative restaking protocol designed specifically for Solana. This new technology promises to address key challenges in decentralization and open up exciting new possibilities for the Solana ecosystem.

Summary

Lucas Bruder, known as Buffalo on Twitter, presented Cheetah Labs' vision for restaking on Solana, emphasizing the network's strengths as a builder-friendly platform. He introduced Steaknet, a decentralized system for managing Cheetah's stake pool, highlighting its current implementation and areas for improvement.

The core of the presentation focused on Cheetah's new restaking protocol, designed to enhance decentralization across various Solana-based services. This protocol allows for staking multiple asset types and introduces flexible, customizable networks that can operate on shared or isolated stakes.

Bruder outlined several use cases for the restaking protocol, including an improved Steaknet, Squads Policy Networks for enhanced multi-sig functionality, and a reward distribution network. He emphasized that Cheetah Labs is actively developing and "dogfooding" this technology, with plans to launch various networks utilizing the protocol in late 2024 and early 2025.

Key Points:

Solana as the Premier Building Platform

Bruder began by emphasizing Solana's strengths as a blockchain network. He highlighted several key factors that make Solana the best place for builders:

1. Shared Vision: Bruder noted that despite some politics within the ecosystem, there's a unified vision inspired by Anatoly Yakovenko's goal of propagating information at the speed of light around the world. This shared direction helps align efforts across the community.

2. Rapid Iteration: The speaker emphasized the incredible pace of improvement on Solana. He pointed out that using the network just a few months apart can feel like night and day due to the constant upgrades and enhancements being implemented.

3. On-Chain Capabilities: Solana's technical capabilities allow for more complex on-chain operations than other networks. Bruder specifically mentioned the sophisticated order books that can be implemented on Solana, which aren't feasible on networks like Ethereum.

These factors combine to create an environment where builders can innovate rapidly and create more advanced applications than on other blockchain platforms.

Steaknet: Cheetah's Decentralized Stake Management

Bruder introduced Steaknet, a key component of Cheetah's infrastructure that's been live on Solana for several months. Steaknet is responsible for managing Cheetah's stake pool in a decentralized manner:

1. Functionality: Steaknet runs a state machine on Solana that delegates stake to different validators. It continuously evaluates validator performance and redistributes stake to optimize for efficiency and network health.

2. Transparency: All scores and metrics used by Steaknet are stored on-chain, allowing for full transparency of the decision-making process.

3. Challenges: Bruder acknowledged some issues with Steaknet, including occasional data upload errors and reliability concerns. He stressed the need for better uptime and more robust incentives for keepers maintaining the system.

The presentation of Steaknet served as a precursor to introducing Cheetah's new restaking protocol, highlighting both the potential and challenges of decentralized stake management systems.

Cheetah's Restaking Protocol

The core of Bruder's presentation focused on Cheetah's new restaking protocol, which aims to address decentralization challenges across various Solana-based services:

1. Multi-Asset Support: Unlike traditional staking, Cheetah's restaking protocol allows for staking any asset, including tokens like USDC.

2. Flexible Network Design: The protocol enables the creation of customizable networks with shared or isolated stakes, allowing for a wide range of potential applications.

3. Vault Receipt Tokens: Similar to liquid staking tokens, the protocol introduces vault receipt tokens as a tokenized representation of staked assets, enabling their use in DeFi applications.

4. SVM Native: The protocol is built specifically for the Solana Virtual Machine, optimized for efficiency and low gas costs.

Bruder emphasized the protocol's flexibility, allowing networks to evolve over time by changing asset support or governance structures as needed.

Use Cases and Future Plans

Bruder outlined several exciting use cases for the restaking protocol:

1. Enhanced Steaknet: The protocol could address current limitations in Steaknet, making it truly permissionless and eliminating reliance on centralized services.

2. Squads Policy Networks: Integration with Squads, Solana's largest multi-sig platform, to enable more sophisticated and flexible multi-sig arrangements.

3. Reward Distribution Network: A system for fairly and efficiently distributing rewards to stakers and operators across various networks built on the protocol.

Cheetah Labs is actively developing these applications, with plans to launch the first networks using the restaking protocol in late 2024 and early 2025. Bruder stressed the importance of "dogfooding" the technology, using it within Cheetah's own products to ensure its robustness and effectiveness.

Facts + Figures

• Cheetah Labs' Steaknet is currently managing approximately 13 million SOL in stake
• Steaknet has been live on Solana for several months
• The Cheetah restaking protocol is designed to be SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) native
• The protocol supports staking of multiple asset types, including USDC
• Cheetah restaking introduces vault receipt tokens, similar to liquid staking tokens
• Squads is described as the largest multi-sig platform on Solana
• Cheetah Labs plans to launch its restaking protocol live in late 2024
• The first networks built on the restaking protocol are expected to come online in late 2024 and early 2025
• Bruder, known as Buffalo on Twitter, has a background in computer engineering and firmware
• Bruder has been a contributor to Solana Core, working on bug fixes and protocol improvements

Top quotes

1. "Solana loves builders. There's a shared vision that everyone can get behind."
2. "Steaknet is the brain of the Cheetah stake pool."
3. "Cheetah restaking lets you stake any asset."
4. "You can think of vault receipt tokens like liquid staking tokens on Solana."
5. "Beyond the hype, I think it's important to highlight some of the use cases of restaking."
6. "We're actively dogfooding this technology in the platform."
7. "Solana is the best place to do restaking."

Questions Answered

What is Cheetah Labs' restaking protocol?

Cheetah Labs' restaking protocol is a multi-asset, flexible system designed for non-consensus networks on Solana. It allows users to stake various assets, including USDC, across multiple networks simultaneously. The protocol introduces vault receipt tokens, similar to liquid staking tokens, which can be used in DeFi applications while the underlying assets are staked.

How does Steaknet work?

Steaknet is a decentralized system that manages Cheetah's stake pool on Solana. It runs a state machine on-chain that delegates stake to different validators based on their performance. Steaknet continuously evaluates validators and redistributes stake to optimize for efficiency and network health. All scores and metrics used by Steaknet are stored on-chain for transparency.

What are some use cases for Cheetah's restaking protocol?

The restaking protocol has several potential use cases. It can be used to improve Steaknet, making it truly permissionless. It can also integrate with Squads, Solana's largest multi-sig platform, to enable more sophisticated multi-sig arrangements. Additionally, Cheetah Labs is developing a reward distribution network that will use the protocol to fairly distribute rewards to stakers and operators across various networks.

When will Cheetah's restaking protocol be available?

According to Lucas Bruder, Cheetah Labs plans to launch their restaking protocol live in late 2024. The first networks built on the restaking protocol are expected to come online in late 2024 and early 2025.

How does Cheetah's restaking protocol differ from traditional staking?

Unlike traditional staking, which typically involves staking a single native token, Cheetah's restaking protocol allows for staking any asset, including tokens like USDC. It also enables the creation of customizable networks with shared or isolated stakes, providing more flexibility than traditional staking systems. Additionally, the protocol introduces vault receipt tokens, which represent staked assets and can be used in DeFi applications.