Rocket Rescue Node 2026 H2 Renewal
What work from the previous proposal was completed?
No major changes
What work from the previous proposal is ongoing or pending?
None
What work was not originally planned, but completed, if any?
None
What work is newly slated since the previous proposal?
New work is needed to add megapool support. Rescue Node currently enforces 0x02 address fee recipients for non-minipool validators, which is improper for megapool validators in the smoothing pool. I will do this pro-bono.
Are the results of this project entirely open source (MIT, GPL, Apache, CC BY license or similar)? If not, which parts are not, and why not?
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AGPLv3
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rescue-proxy
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guarded-beacon-proxy
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rescue-api
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MIT
- rescue-ui
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Closed Source
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infrastructure
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secrets
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As a reminder, the infrastructure and secrets libraries are closed source, the former out of an abundance of caution, and the latter as a requirement. We don’t believe either of these to be a hindrance to a third party wishing to modify or run the service themselves.
Benefits - enter N/A where appropriate
What metrics can you share on the success of the project?
The dashboard remains viewable at https://stats.rescuenode.com/
At the time of writing, 5 node operators with 21 minipools are using the rescue node. One solo staker with 20 validators is connected.
Access has been requested 3747 times, 3505 times by Rocket Pool NOs and 242 times by solo stakers.
This corresponds to 170 solo stakers and 1225 node operators.
This is 203 incidents where the Rescue Node was used since the last application (January). At almost $800 per month, this now translates to about $22 per incident- which is quite a bit worse than previous application cycles.
In less specific terms, how has this project improved the Rocket Pool ecosystem or benefited the Ethereum ecosystem?
We continue to believe the project offers a safety net which helps differentiate Rocket Pool from other staking protocols and attract node operators.
Team
Who has done the work, and have there been any changes to the team?
No changes to the maintainers:
- Ken
- Poupas
- Patches
- Yorick
No new contributors, but thank you to our past contributors (sno, trainface, et al) and collaborators (dmccartney, hanniabu, sleety)
How have the individual constituents of the team been compensated?
Maintenance continues to be pro-bono.
EthStaker pays the hardware costs and is in turn the recipient of the funds from the GMC.
How has maintenance been performed since the delivery of the project?
Sporadically, as needed, and pro-bono.
Payment and Verification
Have the acceptance criteria been met?
We believe so.
What is the proposed payment schedule for the grant? How much RPL and over what period of time is the applicant requesting? Does this differ from the original approved amount?
In the AI era, OVH hiked prices on us (and erroneously removed our discount- which we had reinstated). Before our previous application, we had also upgraded the nodes to supernodes out of necessity (for Pectra).
Our operational costs are now $771.25 a month. EthStaker has graciously covered the deficit until now, and would like to be reimbursed for the 4 months of increased cost, starting April 1st and covering July, for $83.75 per month.
So this grant, in the first month (August), is requesting $1106.25, and is requesting $771.25 per month for 5 subsequent months - a proactive total of $4627.50 and a retroactive total of $335.00
Is there a measurable Return on Investment for the project?
We are decidedly in rough times, due to the current price of ETH and rising hardware costs.
Using a staking APR of around 2.25%, a $771.25-a-month deployment must account for at least $411,333.34 to break even- at today’s ETH price of $1725, that corresponds to 238.45 ETH, or an average of 7.45 mini/megapools connected. We are certainly at a point where the Rescue Node may not always break even in protocol revenue terms.
What is the breakdown of spending on development for the original grant vs. maintenance?
100% of ongoing funds continue to be put towards reimbursing costs.
Conflict of Interest
Does the person or persons proposing the grant have any conflicts of interest to disclose? (Please disclose here if you are a member of the GMC or if any member of the GMC would benefit directly financially from the grant).
I can make a full list of my engagements in the ethereum / crypto ecosystems available to the GMC, but I have none to disclose that would impact my ability to work on the Rescue Node.
Will the recipient of the grant, or any protocol or project in which the recipient has a vested interest (other than Rocket Pool), benefit financially if the grant is successful?
No