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Diva vs Solo Staking

Both Diva and Solo Staking are highly decentralized ways to secure Ethereum while getting staking rewards.

Solo staking is the base layer​

Solo staking is the original implementation of Ethereum's Proof of Stake, the way its developers designed it.

As a primitive, it is the most "bare metal" and pure way of staking, and all other staking systems are built on top of it.

It requires you to stake 32 ETH per validator, being quite rigid about the amounts for technical reasons.

In order to solo stake, you need to set up your own machine, but thanks to it, it is the most decentralized and resilient option as it has the lowest number of dependencies.

Ethereum is lucky to have a vibrant community of solo stakers, estimated to be between 5-25% of the network.

In an ideal world, more stakers would run their own machines, but because of the way the Ethereum protocol is designed, the requirements can be prohibitive for most:

  • 32 ETH is a very high amount for most people, especially in lower income regions
  • Not everybody has the technical skills to solo stake
  • The penalties for solo stakers can be discouraging

On the reward side, solo staking can also be unappealing for two reasons:

  • Your staked ETH is illiquid, which means there is an opportunity cost compared to Liquid Staking.
  • Rewards are highly variable, with large blocks rewards happening only once every few weeks or months.

Diva is a "layer 2" of solo stakers​

Diva was designed by asking "how could Ethereum staking work if we could redesign it from scratch?".

Diva maintains most the decentralization advantages of solo staking on Ethereum, as every Operator needs to run their own full Ethereum node.

Design Principles​

Validator Design

Incentives and penalties

  • Socialized smooth rewards
  • Quick ejection to bad actors

Trust-minimized crypto security

  • "Can't be evil" system
  • Economic guarantees

There are many advantages to Using Diva is like being part of a "Operator union", where:

  • Stakers can get their ETH staked by Diva without the need to run their own hardware.
  • Anyone can be an Operator from only 1 ETH and generate higher rewards than solo staking.
  • Rewards for everyone are predictable and smooth, as they are averaged for the entire network.

Diva wraps Ethereum validation into a greatly simplified client which handles all validation duties transparently. As an Operator, you don't need to handle validator keys, withdrawals, etc, as it's all handled by the Diva client.

The Diva client works a lot like Bittorrent: it connects to other clients via its P2P network, streaming validation duties automatically the way Bittorrent streams files.

Diva's DVT also means that Operators can go offline and are protected against failure without causing any damages, offering more flexibility than solo staking.