Staking Facilities

TL;DR

Staking Facilities is an enterprise-grade staking provider and infrastructure company supporting the Solana ecosystem and other proof-of-stake blockchains. They operate one of the largest validators on Solana with over 8M SOL staked. Staking Facilities offers institutional staking services with a focus on compliance, automation and redundancy.

What Is Staking Facilities?

Staking Facilities is a blockchain infrastructure company that specializes in providing enterprise-grade staking services for proof-of-stake networks like Solana. Founded in 2017, they were an early adopter of Solana, operating one of the network's largest validators with over 8 million SOL tokens staked, representing over 2% of the total stake.

As a non-custodial staking provider, Staking Facilities allows Solana token holders to stake their SOL and earn staking rewards while maintaining full control over their tokens. They cater especially to institutional clients, offering customized staking solutions that prioritize compliance, automation, and redundancy to ensure a reliable and secure staking experience.

How Staking Works on Solana

Solana uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to validate transactions and secure the network. In a PoS system, token holders can "stake" their tokens as collateral to become validators. These validators are then selected to add new blocks to the blockchain, earning staking rewards in return.

By staking SOL tokens with a reputable provider like Staking Facilities, Solana holders can participate in securing the network and earn a yield on their holdings without needing to run their own validator infrastructure. Staking helps make Solana more decentralized and resistant to attacks or censorship.

Staking with Staking Facilities

Getting started with Solana staking through Staking Facilities is straightforward:

1. Create an account on the Staking Facilities website
2. Deposit your SOL tokens into the provided staking wallet address
3. Start earning staking rewards, distributed at the end of each epoch (roughly every 2-3 days on Solana)

Staking Facilities offers competitive staking returns, with APYs often exceeding 7-8% annually. As a non-custodial provider, stakers maintain full ownership and control of their SOL at all times.

For institutional clients and projects building on Solana, Staking Facilities provides more advanced staking solutions. These include operating whitelabel validators, staking widget integrations, and compounding rewards strategies to maximize returns.

Solana Involvement and Ecosystem Support

Beyond operating a major validator, Staking Facilities has been deeply involved in the Solana ecosystem since 2019. Members of the Staking Facilities team serve on the Solana Foundation council, helping guide the strategic direction of the network.

Staking Facilities is an active contributor to Solana's open-source codebase, with a particular focus on improving the staking and validation layers of the blockchain. Their team regularly participates in Solana hackathons and workshops to support developers building on the network.

In November 2023, Staking Facilities announced the launch of a $25 million venture arm to invest in projects building in the Solana and broader Web3 ecosystem. This initiative aims to provide not just capital but also technical and operational expertise to help founders scale decentralized applications and infrastructure.

Staking on Other PoS Networks

While Solana is a core focus, Staking Facilities also provides institutional-grade staking services and infrastructure for other major proof-of-stake blockchains, including:

• Ethereum: Staking ETH and operating validator nodes for Ethereum's Beacon Chain
• Polkadot: Validating for the Polkadot Relay Chain and parachains like Kusama
• Cosmos: Running validator infrastructure for the Cosmos Hub and other Cosmos SDK blockchains
• The Graph: Serving as an indexer for The Graph's decentralized API and query layer

This multi-chain approach allows Staking Facilities to offer their clients a diversified staking portfolio while contributing to the security and decentralization of multiple key networks in the Web3 ecosystem.

Team and Milestones

Staking Facilities was co-founded in 2017 by Wolfgang Albrecht, Julius Schmidt, and Florian Liss. The trio brings deep experience across blockchain infrastructure, software engineering, and business development.

Some recent milestones for the company include:

• Serving over 15 institutional clients and securing over $800M in assets staked across PoS networks
• Launching a venture arm in November 2023 with $25M to invest in Solana and Web3 projects
• Co-founding the European Blockchain Association in October 2020 to support EU-based blockchain innovation
• Joining as a node operator for decentralized staking protocol Lido in December 2020

With a team of over 20 full-time employees, offices in Germany and the US, and backing from Solana ecosystem funds like CoinShares and IOSG Ventures, Staking Facilities is positioned to remain a leading infrastructure and staking provider as the Solana network continues to grow.