Rocket Pool 2 — Beta v1 Guide. About the Rocket Pool Beta v2
By: Jake Pospischil
Tags: Ethereum, Casper, Proof Of Stake, Rocketpool, Blockchain

Beta Overview

The new Rocket Pool website features a greatly simplified design, with the most relevant information and features taking centre stage. First, you’ll notice your current account “blockie” along with your ETH and rETH balances:

Account ETH and rETH balances

rETH (or “Rocket ETH”) is a special token designed to pay you staking rewards in a form which you can use before Phase 2 of the Ethereum 2.0 rollout. Because validators on the beacon chain can’t withdraw their rewards until phase 2 launches, Rocket Pool is instead paying staking rewards out in the form of rETH. rETH is backed by beacon chain ether 1:1, and will be tradable for ether after the phase 2 launch. Until then, you can trade it like any other ERC-20 token!

If you click on your account details, you’ll see an overlay showing detailed information for that account, including: any notifications for your deposits; your queued and staking deposits; and your deposits which are ready (or almost ready) to withdraw. If you’re using a web3 enabled browser, you’ll also see a list of your available accounts, with the option to switch between them.

Account deposit notifications

Queued and staking deposits

Logged out and withdrawable deposits

Note that a deposit can be assigned to multiple minipools which could be in a variety of different states, so part of a deposit might be staking while another part is still queued, waiting to begin staking, or already withdrawn. The status displayed for a deposit always refers to the part which has progressed the furthest. For example, a deposit will show up under with “withdrawals” section as “pending” if it’s partly assigned to a logged out minipool, even if a portion of it is still staking. Click the arrow to the right of the deposit details to see the breakdown of the minipools it’s assigned to, or its position in the deposit queue.

When you’re ready, click the close button above your account details to return to the landing page. Let’s try the “Network Map” link in the header to view the current state of the Rocket Pool network!

The Rocket Pool network

This shows us the nodes making up the network, broken down by geographical region. The icons under each region indicate: the number of nodes operating there; the number of deposits assigned to those nodes; and the total amount of ether which is staking under those nodes.

Depositing With Rocket Pool

Now that you’re familiar with most of the UI, let’s deposit some ether into the Rocket Pool network! Using the deposit form on the landing page, enter an amount of ether to stake, choose a staking duration, and click “start staking”:

Depositing into Rocket Pool

You’ll see a notice explaining the use of the rETH token. Confirm to continue:

Confirming the deposit

Finally, confirm your transaction in MetaMask to finalise the deposit! You should see a notification in the bottom-right corner of the screen as the transaction is processed and then confirmed. Once it’s finished, the new deposit should appear under the “deposits” screen under your account details. If the deposit queue was empty and there were minipools available, your deposit will immediately be assigned (and potentially begin staking)! Otherwise, it will be placed in the deposit queue to be assigned when able.

Now that you’ve made your first deposit, sit back and enjoy the ride! You can track its progress as it’s assigned to minipools and they begin staking, then log out and withdraw from the beacon chain. The progress meter in the background always shows how far the deposit is to the next stage in its lifecycle.

Withdrawing Your Deposit

After your deposit begins staking and its staking duration has passed, you can head back to the beta site to withdraw your rewards. At this point, it should have moved from the “deposits” list to the “withdrawals” list under your account details. If its status reads “XX rETH — available” then you’re ready to go! Click the arrow to the right of the deposit details to see available actions, and click “Withdraw”:

Withdrawing deposit rewards

You’ll see a notice explaining the withdrawal process and how fees are charged. Confirm to continue:

Confirming the withdrawal

Finally, confirm your transaction(s) in MetaMask to finalise the withdrawal! You should see a notification in the bottom-right corner of the screen as the transaction(s) are processed and then confirmed. Once it’s finished, the remainder of your deposit which is still staking (if any) will appear back under the “deposits” list. Otherwise, your deposit has completed its journey through the Rocket Pool network and will disappear. Check your rETH balance on the landing page — it should show your newly collected tokens!

rETH rewards collected after withdrawal

Congratulations! You’ve withdrawn your deposit + rewards from Rocket Pool and completed your first staking period with us. Treat yourself, you earned it!

Wrapping Up

This concludes the guide to the Rocket Pool 2 — Beta v1! We hope it’s been useful and you’ve enjoyed your experience with the Rocket Pool network :). We can’t wait to bring you the next version, as we’re constantly cooking up new improvements!

Don’t forget, we will be rewarding testers with RPL tokens by airdropping them to addresses which participated in the beta. Make sure you keep your MetaMask account handy so that you can claim your tokens once you receive them!

We’d love to hear from you about your experience and if there are any improvements you think we could make.