Lido v3 white paper published

Lido has published the request-for-comments (RFC) draft of its Lido v3 white paper, marking a major proposed redesign of the protocol’s Ethereum liquid staking architecture. The draft, over a year in development, introduces a new core primitive called stVaults, which are isolated, non‑custodial staking vaults that let users or institutions define their own validator setups while still being able to access stETH liquidity on top. Lido is explicitly inviting the community, node operators, and external researchers to review the design and provide feedback before finalizing the specification. At a technical level, Lido v3 aims to resolve the longstanding “control versus liquidity” trade-off in staking by decoupling how ETH is staked from the shared liquidity layer, turning stVaults into modular building blocks that can support customized operator selection, fee structures, MEV policies, and risk preferences. The proposed architecture preserves stETH fungibility via mechanisms such as reserve ratios and health factors, while still allowing stVault owners to choose operators and, if desired, mint stETH against their positions. This shift is positioned as Lido’s most significant architectural update to date, with potential implications for institutional staking, DeFi integrations that rely on stETH, and governance, as contributors iterate on the RFC toward a final v3 white paper.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• The Lido V3 white paper has been released, with the core - Binance (binance.com)
• How Lido v3 Unlocks Institutional-Grade Staking and DeFi (chorus.one)
• Lido V3 Technical Paper (docs.lido.fi)
• docs/docs/lido-v3-whitepaper.mdx at main · lidofinance/docs - GitHub (github.com)
• Lido v3 Whitepaper RFC - Lido Governance (research.lido.fi)

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• Lido Finance