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3.2
Active Staking via Minipools
Active staking happens when the user wants to be responsible for a validator using either their own computer or a service. It requires more know-how and at risk collateral, but allows for greater rewards, aiding in blockchain health, and intangibles like education and enjoyment in the web3 arena.
The active staker, commonly called a Node Operator (NO) in RP parlance, will typically use a dedicated home computer to create an Ethereum node and activate a validator. There are many possibilities, including old unused computers, dedicated NUCs, the Mercadian Systems Proteus developed by RP core team member, Joe Clapis (inquire in the Rocket Pool discord), etc., as long as the requirements are met for the large data storage, memory and networking needed for validator operations (see build requirements).
If a service is preferred, there are several options listed in the above build requirements documentation.
After hardware requirements are met, the user must have an amount of ETH and RPL (Rocket Pool's protocol token) to actively stake. Currently, Rocket Pool has two options (see section 4.2):
The 8 ETH requirement is for a LEB8 (Lower ETH Bonded) minipool and the 16 ETH is for a standard minipool. More RPL is allowed, but this is the minimum to start a minipool.
Minipools
The Smart Node stack is a set of scripts and smart contracts that assists staking via a Rocket Pool minipool. Minipool and associated smart contracts join Node Operators with those who wish to stake without running a node (passive staking). It does this by requiring an 8 or 16 ETH bond from the Node Operator and bundling it with either 24 or 16 borrowed ETH from the pool of staker deposits to make the 32 ETH required to activate a validator.
The active and passive stakers then share equally in the rewards - minus a commission paid to the node operator for doing the heavy lifting (Rocket Pool itself takes no direct fees or commission). In this way, a minipool is not identical to a validator, although there is a one-to-one mapping, rather it is the Rocket Pool container for activating and interacting with a validator.
RPL
The Node Operator must also stake RPL tokens as collateral and in return receives RPL rewards. This is further discussed in section 4.2.
Stopping Active Staking
To exit their position, the active staker must trigger the minipool exit (which exits the validator from the Beacon Chain). The Node Operator then gets their deposit bond and any remaining rewards due to them back and the other bundled funds and rewards go to the rETH contract.