Rocket Pool 2.0 Beta Recap
By: Jake Pospischil
Tags: Ethereum, Staking, Proof Of Stake, Rocketpool, Blockchain

This article refers to a previous beta for Rocket Pool. See information on the currently running beta here.

The Rocket Pool 2.0 Beta has finally wrapped up, clocking in at just shy of two months of uptime. The network was running either close to or at capacity the whole time, proving just how enthusiastic Rocket Pool fans can be! We’ve had a blast putting our platform out into the wild, and seeing the incredible reception and level of engagement from the community. We’ve received tonnes of crucial feedback and help finding bugs, so a huge thanks to all of you!

Now let’s dig into the meat and potatoes:

The Stats

How did the beta perform the second time around? Here’s a look at some numbers:

Faucets

4,290 Ether withdrawals were made, from 1,081 unique addresses

Ether withdrawals were made, from unique addresses 84,012 ETH was withdrawn in total

ETH was withdrawn in total 2,388 RPL withdrawals were made, from 810 unique addresses

RPL withdrawals were made, from unique addresses 112,248 RPL was withdrawn in total

User Deposits

4,127 user deposits were made, from 772 unique addresses

user deposits were made, from unique addresses 53,443 ETH was deposited by users in total

Nodes

124 addresses registered to be Rocket Pool node operators

addresses registered to be Rocket Pool node operators 3,166 node deposits were made to create 3,166 minipools

node deposits were made to create 3,166 minipools 49,232 ETH was deposited by node operators in total

ETH was deposited by node operators in total 15,701 RPL was deposited by node operators in total

Beacon Chain

99,424 ETH was deposited into the beacon chain in total

ETH was deposited into the beacon chain in total 113,897 ETH was withdrawn from the beacon chain in total

There’s a lot to unpack there. The node operators really stole the show this year, racking up some huge figures and showing us how it’s done! Let’s go through some of the highlights after doing a quick analysis:

About 18,000 more ETH was deposited into the network by users & node operators, in total, than was withdrawn from the beta faucet. This shows our node operators making excellent use of a beta-only feature allowing them to burn their earned rETH for ETH and put it back in the system.

A whopping 112,000+ RPL was withdrawn from the beta faucet by users and node operators alike, even though only 14% of it was needed to stake. We’re glad everyone loves our token so much, even when it’s just pretend money :).

About 16,000 RPL was required by node operators to stake 50,000 ETH (or 32% as much). This low cost shows that user demand for staking was extremely high throughout the beta. We expect the number of node operators to increase in future betas — and the RPL cost to go up — as we continue to make running a node easier and more accessible.

Finally, and most importantly, we withdrew about 14.5% more Ether from the Beacon Chain (simulator) than we put into it. This shows that even with the occasional patch of node downtime and a few penalties, the network generated a nice profit overall! We hope everyone who got involved enjoys their testnet lambos ;)

Fixes and Improvements

The level of activity in the #beta channel of our Discord group was unprecedented. We received heaps of fantastic suggestions for improvements, as well as lots of helpful usage data and bug reports! Here’s an overview of all of the updates we made over the course of the beta:

Rocket Pool Network

Removed the default payable method on minipools (left over from the previous version of Rocket Pool) to prevent unintentional direct transfers to minipool contracts

Beta Site

Added deposit data for deposits associated with backup withdrawal addresses

Implemented server-side caching for queried data, including the node network map

Added loading indicators for various queried data

Improved rounding on numerical fields across the site

Added timeouts to general notifications to reduce UI clutter

Smart Node Software

Added faucet reset times to output for faucet commands (beta only)

Implemented command to burn rETH for ETH (beta only)

Added backup notice to node initialisation command

Implemented command to export the node account data

Implemented command to send Ether & tokens from the node account

Streamlined deposit requirement command to list all durations at once

Added extra output and overview to minipool status command

Added arguments to filter minipool status by type

Added extra output to minipool withdrawal command

Implemented withdrawals from initialised minipools without user deposits

Fixed the registration of Rocket Pool system environment variables

Fixed minor installation issues related to user profile / permissions

Fixed Eth 1 client peer discovery configuration issues

Fixed various minipool process bugs and lifecycle issues

Fixed watchtower process transaction issues

Fixed miscellaneous concurrency and memory consumption issues

We’re very happy with how the Rocket Pool network, website, and smart node software performed overall over the course of the beta. However, we also learned a lot and were able to make a lot of great improvements thanks to community participation! This will help us make the next release even better, with a particular focus on usability and accessibility for node operators.

RPL Token Giveaway

As a thank you to everyone who participated in the beta, we’re giving away 10,000 RPL split between all addresses which made deposits into the Rocket Pool network. If you’re eligible, you will need to manually claim your RPL via the beta site. We’ll have a one week grace period for everyone to make sure that their address has been listed, and then the claim period will begin on the 27th of November at midnight UTC.

You can check whether your address is eligible right now! First, make sure that the account you have selected in MetaMask is the one which you used to interact with the beta. For those who staked via the website, this means the address you made your deposit(s) with. For node operators, make sure your software is up to date, export your node account, and import it into MetaMask:

rocketpool service stop

docker pull rocketpool/smartnode-cli:v0.0.1

rocketpool service start

rocketpool node export

Open MetaMask

Click the account icon in the top-right corner

Click “Import Account”

Select “JSON File” for the account type

Select your key file, enter your password, and click “Import”

Once you’ve selected your account, connect to the Ethereum main network and head over to the beta site. If you’re still on the Rocket Pool Beta test network, you will see a notice telling you that the beta is closed.

Oops! Time to switch back to mainnet

Otherwise, you will see a notice letting you know whether you’re eligible or not. If you are, you’re all set. Just come back on the 27th of November at 00:00 UTC to collect your reward!

Ready to roll on the 27th of November!

Note that because you’ll need to send a transaction to receive your RPL (and also to send them to another address), you will need a small amount of Ether in your MetaMask account to cover gas costs. You can send some Ether to this account from your primary one, and then move it back later once you’re done.

Once you’ve received your RPL tokens, here’s how to send them to your main wallet address:

Open MetaMask and click the menu icon, then select “Add Token”. Click “Custom Tokens” and enter the RPL contract address (0xb4efd85c19999d84251304bda99e90b92300bd93) in the “Token Address” field. The “Token Symbol” field should display “RPL”. Click “Next” and then “Add Tokens”. Click the menu icon again, and then switch from Ether to RPL. MetaMask will now display the RPL balance in your account. Click the “Send” button under your balance and follow the prompts to send your RPL to another address. You may adjust the gas price for a speedier transaction.

Adding the RPL token and sending tokens in MetaMask

Special Thanks

Finally, a special shout-out to some of our most active Beta users for all of their support finding issues and suggesting improvements — these everyday heroes from our discord group are:

@Kron#0582

@GammaRaise#4139

@Bluetopia#6429

@m3rlin5ky#1182

@uvizhe#5076

@sknuth#9426

@doppelbock#8687

@Florian | Staking Facilities#4127

@Matterhorn#1591

@ikt#9304

These helpful souls will all receive a free Rocket Pool shirt for their efforts (to be organised via Discord!)

Wrapping Up

That covers all of the news from the Rocket Pool Beta. We had a blast running it and seeing you all get involved, we hope you enjoyed the journey too! We’ll be back with a new version featuring real beacon chain clients, more operating system support, and a brand new Smart Node GUI in the coming months.

Until then, why not swing by for a chat and say G’day! We have a Discord chat room anyone can join, so what are you waiting for? If chat rooms aren’t your thing, we’re also on Twitter!