Proposal to auto buy RPL on minipool creation

Node Operator Experience
1

it is somewhat difficult for the new NO to buy RPL and no CEX are planned

this is a proposal to simplify the RPL bond purchase:

on the node wallet when the node will be set up and minipool created , NO must have 17.6 ETH + fees or more only.

Having RPL won’t be mandatory, they will be bought automatically.

the node setup should just ask how much collateralization is needed

RPL could be bought from PDAO pool or from market.

4 Likes
2

I like this, except for the bought automatically part of this. Specifically:

  1. It would be confusing: “Wait, why does it cost 17.6 ETH for a 16 ETH minipool?”
  2. It would feel bait-y: “You’re secretly using my ETH to buy your token on the back end??”
  3. Would require a contract change (audit).

But, I could see this being a really great addition to the Smartnode as an CLI option. It could even guide you through how much to buy based on how many minipools you want to create, desired collateral %, etc. in a simple wizard, so the NO doesn’t have to do collateral math or find the deepest RPL liquidity.

I’d be curious what @jcrtp thinks about adding something like rocketpool node buy-rpl for a brief guided wizard + integration to 1inch/Uni.

Benefits:

  1. Would do the math for them so they don’t need to calculate collateralization % => how many tokens I need.
  2. This could also help users “top up” or to increase collateral.
  3. Many NOs are seemingly coming straight from CEXs and have never used DeFi. It would hand hold them through that.
  4. It would further clarify RPL v2 as the “real” token. Some NOs have been confused about why there are 2 RPL tokens.

This is the kind of ease of use we should be shooting for IMO. Just deposit ETH into your node wallet – nothing else needed.

8 Likes
3

this is exactly what I would like to convey with this proposal

1 Like
4

yeah i think this could be a neat feature. But as Marceau already lined out, it would have to be implemented in a way that leaves no doubt that there is a need for RPL collateral upfront, otherwise this can get confusing.

But as a simple quality of life addition to the smartnode stack i think this could be great.

1 Like
5

I think this is a rather important point. The RPL purchase flow can be a bit daunting considering the amount of money potentially involved and the number of steps involved to find the token address on uniswap, wait for an acceptable gas fee, swap, then send to node wallet.

1 Like
6

Imagine a future CLI that would use oracle data to buy and sell RPL based on a collateral range defined by the user. Or even auto-sell collateralization above 150% into ETH that could be auto deposited into a predetermined user account. Or batch it into USDC dumped into a coinbase account that ran once a week or once a month. I assume that CLI interfacing with uniswap/1inch could be done without new contracts.

Anyways, I agree that this would be an enhancement to the end user experience.

1 Like
7

I like the idea. A Smartnode CLI option hooking up to Uniswap seems like a pretty credibly neutral option that simply adds convenience.