The heavy staking craze: a comparative analysis of Solayer, Picasso and Jito

Author: hamster

Restaking has become a hot topic in the blockchain industry this year, especially in the Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems. As this trend spreads, the Solana ecosystem has gradually joined the ranks of restaking. In the Solana ecosystem, restaking is not only seen as an important way to enhance network security and increase the benefits of participants, but also the core of multiple innovative projects. Solayer, Picasso, and Jito are currently the three major representatives of Solana's restaking track.

• Solayer:Solayer provides a flexible staking mechanism through a shared validator network and an endogenous AVS system that automatically adjusts staking strategies based on market dynamics. This dynamic adjustment capability ensures that users optimize their investment returns under various market conditions.

• Picasso: Picasso was originally established in the Cosmos ecosystem and has expanded to multiple networks such as Solana, Ethereum, and Polkadot through its IBC and AVS technologies. Picasso's cross-chain interoperability gives it a competitive advantage in multiple blockchain networks, especially in solving the interoperability problem between Solana and other blockchains, providing users with a wider range of cross-chain interaction options.

• Jito: As the largest TVL protocol in the Solana network, Jito dominates the market with its liquidity staking token JitoSOL. JitoSOL not only provides basic staking rewards, but also brings additional benefits to users by participating in MEV auctions. Although Jito's heavy staking service has not yet been officially launched, its strong technical architecture and market influence have attracted widespread attention and laid the foundation for its further development in the heavy staking track in the future.

Solayer: Endogenous AVS + Binance Labs Investment

Solayer is an innovative re-staking protocol designed specifically for the Solana ecosystem. By allowing users to re-stake SOL tokens or Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) on multiple DApps, Solayer not only significantly improves the security of the network, but also optimizes the efficiency of capital utilization. This flexible staking mechanism enables users to obtain benefits from multiple aspects, such as rewards generated by MEV and AVS.

Since its soft launch in May 2024, Solayer has developed rapidly in the Solana ecosystem. According to DefiLlama data, as of August 11, Solayer's TVL has reached 163 million US dollars, ranking 13th in the Solana protocol. The total amount of SOL pledged on the platform exceeds 259 million, attracting more than 86,000 independent users to participate.

Technical Architecture

1. Distributed Cloud Infrastructure: Solayer Leveraging decentralized cloud infrastructure, Solana’s powerful performance is used as a foundation to provide dApps with high-quality block space and higher transaction throughput. The Solayer architecture allows dApps to enjoy customized service quality based on the user’s stake weight, thereby better utilizing the resources of the Solana network.

2. Consensus and Validation: Solayer’s re-staking mechanism is based on Solana’s PoS and PoH consensus algorithms. By re-staking SOL or LST into Solayer’s staking pool, users are able to participate in the validation process of multiple systems and earn additional benefits. Solayer supports multiple staking pools and automatically balances the asset distribution in these pools through smart contracts to ensure maximum benefits among different validators.

3. Shared Validator Network (SVN): Solayer introduces the concept of a shared validator network, which combines the resources of multiple validators to provide security for the endogenous AVS (Active Validation Service) within Solana. This shared network not only improves the decentralization of the network, but also enhances the liquidity and overall performance of the platform through resource integration

4. Endogenous AVS: Endogenous AVS is the active validation service standard provided by Solayer for applications in the Solana ecosystem. Through this standard, applications can obtain customized block space and higher security. Stakers can re-stake SOL or LST into designated applications, which use endogenous AVS to obtain validation services, thereby improving transaction priority and security, and enhancing the integration efficiency with the Solana main chain. In short, endogenous AVS helps applications optimize performance, improve transaction processing capabilities and security.

Advantages

1. Technical architecture advantages

• Shared validator network: This architecture enables Solayer to provide more efficient block space and transaction processing capabilities for dApps within Solana.

• Endogenous AVS: Compared with other projects, Solayer's design pays more attention to tight integration with the Solana main chain to ensure efficient use of resources.

2. Dynamically adjusted staking strategy

• Solayer has the ability to automatically adjust staking strategies based on market dynamics. Through smart contracts and a shared validator network, Solayer can automatically balance asset allocations in different staking pools to optimize returns as market conditions change. This dynamic adjustment mechanism ensures that the staker's assets are always in the most advantageous position to maximize investment returns.

3. Multiple income structures

• The heavy staking mechanism provided by Solayer allows users to obtain triple returns through multiple staking pools: including MEV-enhanced staking returns, Solayer platform rewards, and returns from SVN. This diversified income structure gives Solayer a clear return on investment advantage in the competition with other Solana heavy staking projects.

4. Binance Labs' strategic investment

• On July 29, 2024, Binance Labs announced a strategic investment in Solayer, indicating its recognition of its technology and market potential. This investment not only helps Solayer expand its team and technical capabilities, but also supports it to integrate more protocols into the Solana ecosystem.

Picasso: Cross-ecosystem heavy staking, from Cosmos to Solana

Picasso is a cross-ecosystem blockchain project that focuses on providing interoperability and heavy staking services for multiple networks. Originally built in the Cosmos ecosystem, Picasso has expanded its influence through its universal inter-chain communication protocol (IBC), and has now been integrated in multiple networks such as Solana, Ethereum, Polkadot, etc. Picasso's core philosophy is to enhance security and liquidity between networks through cross-chain interoperability and decentralized trust architecture.

技术架构

1. AVS Solution: To address Solana’s inability to directly work with IBC, Picasso introduced a specialized AVS solution. Deployed as a smart contract on Solana, the AVS overcomes its original technical limitations by providing state proofs that allow Solana to interact with other IBC-enabled blockchains. Heavy Staking Layer: Picasso’s Heavy Staking Layer allows users to stake SOL and LST (such as mSOL, jitoSOL, and bSOL) into Solana’s validator pool. Through this mechanism, users can increase their staking income while also providing additional security for the Solana network.

2. Restaking Vault System: Picasso’s Restaking Vault system (Restaking Vaults) is the core component of Solana’s restaking implementation, designed to manage and optimize users’ staked assets. The system allows users to stake various Solana ecosystem tokens, including SOL and LST (such as mSOL, jitoSOL, and bSOL), to specific validator pools. Here is a detailed description of how this system works:

• Staking and Deposit: After users deposit SOL or LST into a restaking vault, the system generates a unique NFT for each stake as a deposit. These NFTs not only represent the value of the stake, but also contain key information related to the stake, such as the staked amount, token type, the time of the last reward claim, and the associated validator public key. By using NFTs, the system ensures transparency and traceability of staking records.

• Reward Calculation and Collection: Each staker can claim staking rewards by holding the corresponding NFT. The calculation of rewards is based on the block height since the user last claimed a reward, ensuring that stakers receive a fair share of the rewards. When a staker decides to withdraw their stake, the system first calculates the rewards they deserve, then returns the staked tokens and the corresponding rewards to the user, and destroys the originally generated NFT.

• Liquidity and Security: During the re-staking process, users' assets are locked until the implementation of Solana IBC. This not only provides an additional layer of security, but also allows users to continue to receive staking rewards during the lock-up period. With the launch of IBC, users can choose to unlock their staked assets and withdraw their tokens after observing a 7-day unbinding period.

Through these technical architectures, Picasso not only solves the problem of Solana and IBC interoperability, but also provides users with an efficient and secure staking management platform.

Advantages

1. Cross-chain interoperability: Picasso enables Solana to interoperate with other blockchains by introducing IBC and AVS. Compared to other Solana heavy staking protocols, Picasso has a wider cross-chain compatibility, providing users with richer interaction options.

2. Flexible Heavy-Stake Treasury System: Picasso’s heavy-stake treasury system supports the staking of multiple Solana ecosystem tokens, and provides users with an intuitive and transparent staking management experience by generating NFT certificates. This design not only simplifies the reward calculation and collection process, but also enhances the security and traceability of the staked assets.

3. Security and Reward Mechanism: Picasso has designed a unique penalty and reward mechanism to ensure the security of the network by strictly supervising the performance of validators. At the same time, Picasso ensures the efficiency of the reward calculation and collection process for stakers through NFT and Program Derived Address (PDA) technology. Other protocols may rely more on traditional validator management methods for security, while Picasso’s system is more innovative and rigorous.

Jito Restake: Solana TVL No. 1 Protocol Enters the Heavy Staking Field

As the TVL No. 1 project in the Solana ecosystem, Jito focuses on enhancing the staking income and security of the network. One of its main products is LST JitoSOL. On July 25, Jito released the Jito Restake code and officially entered the heavy staking track. Through this service, users can stake any token that meets the Solana SPL standard on Jito's platform to provide security for new on-chain services and products.

Technical Architecture

Jito's heavy staking technical architecture is for Solana A highly flexible and scalable infrastructure designed by the network to enhance the economic security and scalability of the network. It consists of two main components: the Vault Program and the Restaking Program.

1. Vault Program:

• LRT Management: The Vault Program is responsible for the creation and management of LRT, supporting a variety of Solana SPL-compliant tokens as underlying assets. This module handles the minting, destruction, and delegation of LRT, and allows customized delegation strategies between multiple operators and AVS, thereby enhancing the flexibility and adaptability of the system.

• Flexible Slashing Mechanism: Vault Program also introduces an advanced slashing mechanism, which allows for the setting of multi-level slashing conditions and caps to ensure that risks can be effectively managed and reduced when problems arise. This refined risk management tool provides projects with a highly customized security model.

2. Restaking Program:

• AVS Management: The Restaking Program is responsible for creating and managing AVS and its operators, coordinating the relationship between AVS, operators, and vaults to ensure the efficient operation of the entire system. Through this module, project parties can quickly deploy and manage economic security mechanisms and provide security for new on-chain services and products.

• Reward and Penalty Mechanism:The Restaking Program also manages reward distribution and slashing penalties to ensure the security of the network and the rationality of economic incentives.Through a flexible reward mechanism and a rigorous penalty system, Jito further enhances the overall security of the Solana network.

Jito's restaking technology not only supports participation in economic security by staking JitoSOL or other SPL tokens, but also allows the generation of LRT, allowing users to participate in staking and restaking while maintaining liquidity. In addition, Jito's modular design and open developer ecosystem enable it to support a variety of complex staking strategies and slashing mechanisms, driving the continued development and innovation of the Solana ecosystem.

Advantages

• Multi-asset support and flexibility: Jito's heavy staking architecture supports any token that meets the Solana SPL standard, not just LST. This gives Jito great flexibility in the management and use of tokens, allowing users to participate in heavy staking with multiple assets, thereby improving capital efficiency and flexibility.

• Advanced slashing and risk management: Jito Restake introduces refined slashing conditions, allowing for the setting of multi-level slashing mechanisms and slashing caps, enabling project parties and users to better manage risks and ensure that potential losses can be effectively controlled when security incidents occur.

• Backed by JitoSOL: Jito Restake is backed by JitoSOL, one of the most popular liquidity staking tokens in the Solana network, and naturally has strong market competitiveness. JitoSOL not only provides basic staking rewards, but also brings additional benefits to users by participating in MEV auctions, which enables Jito Restake to provide users with more attractive staking services.

• Modular design and developer support: Jito's architecture is highly modular, allowing developers to easily build and manage staking, re-staking, and LRT products on its basis.

• Market Position and Revenue: As the largest protocol on the Solana network, Jito’s TVL has now reached $1.802 billion, and its annual protocol revenue has reached $21.47 million, according to DefiLlama data. These remarkable achievements have consolidated Jito’s leading position in the Solana ecosystem. Although Jito’s heavy staking service has not yet been officially launched, the code and plans it has released have attracted widespread attention and laid the foundation for its further development in the heavy staking track in the future.