040 Liquid staking vs vanilla staking

This personal essay, written for the Devconflict x Kiwi writing contest after a debate on liquid versus vanilla staking, does not reach a firm verdict on whether liquid staking's benefits outweigh its risks. The author says the debate treated decentralization ideals rather than the actual risks and benefits, and that the benefits were brushed aside. The author describes switching to liquid staking through stETH after running into the 32 ETH requirement for a solo validator, and notes that 22.7% of nodes run on AWS servers. The essay also criticizes low voter participation in Lido's DAO governance and questions whether Lido's dual governance system, which is not yet effective, can solve it.