Overview

StakeWise is a decentralized liquid staking protocol that allows anyone to participate in Ethereum staking without the traditional barriers of technical complexity or capital requirements. The protocol enables users to stake their ETH while maintaining liquidity through osToken →, StakeWise's liquid staking token.

At the core of StakeWise are individual staking pools called Vaults →. Anyone – from solo stakers to professional operators – can create and operate their own Vault, offering flexible staking solutions that serve diverse needs: solo stakers can access liquid staking for their own ETH, while individuals and organizations can stake on their terms and offer liquid staking services to others.

Creating a Vault requires running the StakeWise Operator Service ↗ – specialized software that manages validator operations and ensures your Vault functions properly. Each Vault must have at least one node operator running this service to handle validator registrations, exits, and other critical operations that keep the Vault operational.

🏛️ Architecture Overview
📦 Your Vault → 🎯 Operator Service → ⛓️ Beacon Chain
Smart Contract     Bridge & Manager     Validator Registration

Core Functions

The Operator Service integrates seamlessly with any node setup, supporting your preferred execution and consensus clients, MEV relay, and distributed validator technology.

The Operator Service automates essential Vault management tasks:

Validator Registration

The Operator Service periodically checks whether the Vault has accumulated enough assets for registering new validator(s) and sends a registration transaction to the Vault.

Validator Types

• 0x01 Legacy validators: Fixed stake (32 ETH/1 GNO), no top-up funding available
• 0x02 Compound validators: Variable stake up to 2048 ETH or 64 GNO, supports automatic funding

By default, the Operator Service registers new 0x02 validators, prioritizing funding existing compound validators when possible; otherwise, it registers new validators up to the maximum balance.

Validator Consolidation

Consolidates legacy 0x01 validators to 0x02 compound validators. This reduces validator count and infrastructure overhead.

Withdrawals

When a user requests to exit their stake, the Operator Service identifies the validators from which to withdraw the assets. It first triggers partial withdrawals for the 0x02 validators, starting with the one holding the largest balance. If partial withdrawals are insufficient, it proceeds with full withdrawals.

Exit Queue Monitoring

To minimize the number of withdrawals, the Operator Service checks the exit queue every 12 hours (this interval can be reconfigured).

Oracle Failsafe

The withdrawal functionality can also be disabled for the Operator Service. In that case, the Oracles → will use the exit signatures they received from the Operator Service during validator registration (more details here →).

Vault State Update (Optional)

Keeps your Vault updated by distributing fees to the fee recipient and updating staker positions. This can be configured to run automatically every 12 hours, simplifying contract interactions and reducing gas costs for your users.

Automated Fee Claims

By default, the fees earned by the Vault fee recipient remain locked in the validators. You can enable periodic fee claims through the Operator Service.

Next Steps

Before running the Operator Service, you must first ensure your infrastructure meets the necessary Prerequisites → outlined in the next section.