Ethereum shifted away from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake on September 15th, 2022. You can see a breakdown of the philosophy behind Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake here.

While the network has benefited from this for some time, it was previously only able to be used by those with technical knowledge, by setting up their own node and interacting with a compatible Ethereum client.

Over time, some services have emerged to facilitate this process and it has become considerably more user-friendly.

On Safe{Wallet} staking was previously only available via the use of external applications.

With the help of our partners at kiln.fi, we can now offer Ethereum Staking directly from within the Safe{Wallet} with minimal friction.

There are two main types of Staking, native full-node staking and liquid staking. Liquid staking is designed for smaller investments under the 32 ETH minimum and generally allows users to Deposit and Withdraw at will, although for slightly smaller rewards. Technically this is the same , the only difference is that ownership of a node will be distributed among the different users. While liquid staking is not currently available, we plan to introduce it in a future release.

For the purposes of this article we will be discussing native or full-node staking,

Native staking requires users to have the full 32 ETH needed to run a full node and in the case of deposits more than that, they would need to be multiples of 32 e.g. 64, 96, 128.

In this way, the users become validators on the network. Validators much like miners in a proof-of-work model are responsible for producing blocks and then checking and confirming blocks produced by other validators.

When staking,rewards are generated from both the Consensus Layer (CL) and Execution Layer (EL). Consensus Layer rewards are smaller and more frequent, as they accumulate from transaction activity and validators attesting to network operations. These rewards are distributed randomly among 1/32 of the active validators for each slot, with a properly performing validator typically earning around 0.002 ETH per day. On the other hand, Execution Layer rewards are larger but less frequent, as they come from proposing blocks. Validators only occasionally get selected to propose a block, but the reward for doing so can be substantial.

Here, you can see an example below of a proposed block and its corresponding reward(0.02227 ETH) on the Beacon chain

You can access Staking from the main safe{wallet} dashboard.

Here, you need to provide Ethereum in multiples of 32, on this screen you can see a breakdown of the amount deposited, the net reward rate, and the estimated gas fee for the staking transaction.

Some important information to note on this screen;

Staking requires depositing ETH into the Beacon Chain (Consensus Layer), which involves burning ETH on the Mainnet and minting it on the Beacon Chain. This process is mirrored during unstaking, where ETH is burned on the Beacon Chain and then re-minted on Mainnet. Both actions—staking and unstaking—take time because of this transition between the two layers, which is why there is a queue involved. The time delay ensures the process is secure and properly handled within the network.

Sign the transaction with the owner's wallet and in some time, in this case, roughly 10 hours, your Ethereum will begin to accrue value and your nodes will be up and running.

At the Overview screen you will see your current positions.

Finally at the Withdraw screen you will see your available rewards.

With the option to claim ,

Why can’t I withdraw ?

Most likely these funds are still locked , it's important to note that there is an exit queue of just over 14 days to withdraw.

Where are my rewards , how can I claim them ?

You can choose to claim at the withdrawal screen.

I have less than 32 Ethereum. What can I do ?

While we plan to introduce liquid staking in a later update there is no way to currently do this directly from within the Safe{Wallet} this will be introduced in a later update.

Can I stake other assets ?

This is also a forthcoming feature alongside liquid staking..

Is there a fee for staking?

Kiln’s validators consistently outperform the network, with rewards up to 3.91% higher than the network average. In addition, Kiln offers the most competitive staking fees at just 6%, compared to other providers that charge between 8% and 25%. Safe{Wallet} takes a 20% fee on the total withdrawn rewards, extremely competitive with the rest of the blockchain ecosystem.