Solo staking is the process of running your own Ethereum node and participating personally in the consensus mechanism of the Ethereum network. Instead of pooling your ETH tokens with others to earn passive rewards, you’re the boss of the staking pool, reaping all the benefits. As long as you keep your node running well and stay online 24/7, you get direct rewards from the network.
Besides the passive income, solo staking also makes you committed to the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network. The decentralization factor comes from the fact that you’ll be operating your own copy of the Ethereum network. The security factor comes from validating and approving transactions and even proposing the building of new blocks.
How Solo Staking Works
Ethereum solo staking starts with preparing a security deposit (or investment, as the network calls it) of 32 ETH. Why the deposit? Well, you’ll be taking part in a core process (validation and block building), which concerns the entire network's security. Of course, the Ethereum protocol will need some assurance that you’ll be on your good behavior.
After that, you need to prepare a computer that will be online 24/7 and download the Ethereum client into it. Keep in mind that not just any computer will do; you need hardware with sufficient processing capabilities and ample storage. Then, you’ll synchronize the consensus layer client and the execution layer client of your setup.
The next step is to generate a pair of cryptographic keys for your setup. These private and public keys will be your identity (or signature) as a validator and will also aid in the collection of rewards. After generating the keys, you’ll load them up into your Ethereum client and make the security deposit.
With this, you can start validating transactions, processing transactions, confirming the validity of blocks, and proposing some yourself. As your setup will be working 24/7, you’ll need ongoing maintenance and monitoring to ensure that it never goes online. If it ever malfunctions or goes offline, well, there goes a part of your security deposit.
Benefits of Solo Staking
Now that you’ve understood how to solo stake, you’re probably wondering about the rewards that come with it, right? Well, there’s a lot you can benefit if you solo stake, and you’ll learn about them below.
Passive Income
Like all forms of staking, solo staking is a form of passive income. You’re getting paid by the Ethereum network for contributing to security and getting involved in transaction validation. It’s a less risky alternative to making that cryptocurrency cash than trading cryptocurrency and potentially losing your money.
Earning ETH Directly
Freshly minted ETH is one of the biggest rewards that you earn for going through the stress of solo staking. Instead of going through a bunch of middlemen (who always take their cut), you get to keep everything.
More on
https://hodlfm.com/education/what-is-solo-staking/