StakeWise vs. Native Staking
StakeWise and native staking are more alike than opposed. Both rely on the same validator infrastructure, the same interactions with the Beacon Chain, and the same staking logic: deposit → launch validator → earn. The difference is how it's all handled — and what StakeWise adds on top. The TL;DR: same control, less manual work, plus optional liquidity on demand.
Each Vault is a completely isolated staking environment run by smart contract code. The Operator Service abstracts away the staking complexities — from registration to withdrawals — so that the Vault owner focuses on managing their Vault, not the staking workflow. Node operations can be handled by the Vault owner or a different entity.
What StakeWise Adds
Everything you get with native staking — running your validators, maintaining full control over your setup, collecting staking fees — carries over. What changes is that you no longer need to handle the technical overhead yourself. Beyond that, StakeWise unlocks capabilities that native staking simply can't offer.
For you as an operator
- Built-in fee system. Accept deposits from others and earn fees — no additional tooling needed.
- Automated validator lifecycle. No manual deposit, exit, or compounding management. The Operator Service handles it all through your Vault.
- Advanced staking strategies. Meta Vaults →, DVT support, and flexible configurations let you build staking products tailored to your needs.
- Smoothing Pool. Opt into a shared MEV escrow where execution-layer rewards are pooled and redistributed proportionally — giving your Vault steady, predictable MEV income instead of volatile per-block payouts.
For your depositors
- Optional liquidity via osETH. Depositors can mint osETH → for DeFi access without unstaking. Tokenization can be enabled or disabled per Vault, avoiding compliance issues.
- Yield Amplification. Vault depositors can amplify their staking rewards up to 3x with StakeWise's flagship strategy — Boost ↗. Built into every Vault by default, Boost takes advantage of the positive spread between the staking APY and the borrow cost for ETH on Aave ↗ to increase users' APY. We are actively developing additional strategies to expand yield opportunities for Vault depositors — making your Vault more attractive over time without any extra work on your part.
StakeWise undergoes regular security audits, and Vault contracts are immutable once deployed — the same contracts secure over $1B in staked assets today. Under the hood, the protocol is lean: a small, modular codebase with no external dependencies, built entirely on battle-tested open-source components. As an operator, you just use the UI — the smart contracts handle everything else in the background.