Increase Deposit Pool Max - Sentiment Poll

Governance
,
1

Increase Deposit Pool Maximum

Status: Sentiment Poll - Passed
Related: RPIP-33, RPIP-74
Discord Discussion: #increase DP pre-Saturn 1
RPIP Draft: RPIP-78

Overview

This post is to gauge pDAO support for increasing the Deposit Pool maximum from approximately 18,000 ETH to 6,000,000 ETH (nearly 20% of staked ETH for signaling purposes but effectively infinite for our purposes).

If sentiment is favorable, this would proceed to an on-chain vote in accordance with RPIP-33.

Proposed Change

  • Parameter: deposit.pool.maximum (uint256)
  • Current value: 18000000000000000000000
  • Proposed value: 6000000000000000000000000

No other protocol parameters or behaviors are affected.

Motivation

The proposed increase is intended to support upcoming protocol activity and reduce operational risk:

  • Saturn Readiness
    With the planned Saturn 1 launch and introduction of megapools (targeted for February 9), larger inflows are possible and in fact, have already been arriving. Increasing the Deposit Pool cap allows ETH to accumulate in advance, supporting smoother megapool onboarding.

  • Avoiding RPIP-74 Threshold Effects
    The Deposit Pool could potentially cross the 80% utilization threshold defined in RPIP-74, which would trigger re-enabling of the minipool queue. This was fine when launch was months down the road, but is not needed weeks before launch.

  • Avoiding Rejection of Large Deposits
    If the Deposit Pool reaches its maximum capacity while no minipools are available to absorb additional ETH, the protocol may be forced to reject new deposits. This could discourage institutional or large-scale participants and negatively impact Rocket Pool’s reputation at a critical growth phase.

Rationale

  • This is a capacity-only change —it simply allows more ETH if rETH demand exists.
  • The change is fully reversible via future governance if conditions change.

Security or Other Considerations

The maximum for the Deposit Pool primarily exists to limit drag on rETH yield. A large amount of ETH in the pool means a lot of rETH has been minted that gets rewards but the corresponding ETH is not matched to a validator that is earning rewards. Thus yield is reduced.

This is contrary to the protocol’s usual goals, however, in this case:

  • The build up is temporary and potentially advantageous to Saturn 1 and megapool launch
  • Capital efficiency is greater for megapools, so much so, that we do not expect to be Node Operator limited for a very long time

Having said that, the core team and pDAO must monitor the yield and the Deposit Pool and can decrease the maximum if the situation requires it.

Poll

Should the Deposit Pool maximum be set to 6,000,000 ETH?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Other - comment below
0 voters

Next Steps

  • If community sentiment is positive, an on-chain vote will be initiated to update deposit.pool.maximumand the RPIP will be finalized.

Discuss below or in the discord and vote!

Poll ends January 15, 2025

3 Likes
2

Makes sense. Let’s do it.

3

Why 6mil? Why not 1 mill? 500K?

4

it’s a long long story. Have a seat and I will tell it:
We effectively wanted to just uncap it for now. Someone suggested 20% of staked ETH since that is the limit we pledged to max out at to help keep staking out of the hands of one protocol. But that number was 6,311,748 ETH or so. Then someone else wanted an easier number with a lot of zeros and so it wouldn’t get transcribed wrong. I was just along for the ride.

I guess that wasn’t as much long as it was boring. But that’s the true story.

3 Likes
5

I’m in favor, though I personally would like to see the date of reversal relative to Saturn launch written into the rpip so that we don’t have to vote again.

edit: Nvm I’m a dummy. I’m in favor of the draft as it currently stands.

2 Likes
6

Thank you everyone.

The sentiment poll period has ended and the poll is closed.
Feel free to keep commenting below, but it will not affect the outcome.

With 39 votes and 97% approval, this is considered passed.
RPIP-78 is finalized and the onchain vote has been proposed.
It will take a week before it moves from pending to active and then info on voting onchain will be included.

rocketpool pdao proposals list
1 Pending proposal(s)

7: set deposit.pool.maximum - Proposed by: 0x2C5D28538f051686e62da624dDb2811Cc59A4979

1 Like