With the yield narrative gathering pace within the world of DeFi, Mark (@0xVEER) and Jordi (@gametheorizing) come together and answer some community questions, whilst also discussing how users can maximize yields with Mantle LSP.

There's a tremendous amount of enthusiasm surrounding the DeFi sector on Mantle Network, and we're thrilled to provide an exclusive peek into its development. Here's a summary of our conversation; you can listen to the entire recording on Twitter.

Some sentences have been edited for clarity and brevity.

What is Mantle LSP?

J: Mantle LSP is a way to stake Ether (ETH), but then get a receipt token so that you can still do economic activity, and $mETH is the receipt token for the Ether that is being staked under the Mantle LSP protocol.

To make it clear, Mantle LSP is a protocol that's deployed on L1, and it's governed by Mantle. It was born out of a Mantle Governance proposal, which is governed by Mantle delegates and token holders. However, the protocol itself is not deployed on Mantle Network. That being said, if you bridge $mETH to Mantle, there's a variety of additional yield benefits.

Why did you decide that Mantle LSP was worth pitching and designing?

J: It all comes down to native yield. Native yield means that you can stack yield without choosing one asset over the other. Let's take U.S. Treasuries for example, they pay 5%. You can either take your money out of crypto and put it in the bank for 5%. Or you can put it into Aave for, let's say 3%. However, native yield enables you to do both. You get the underlying yield in the token while having the option to do all the standard DeFi stuff.

This current discussion point is something I thought about a very long time ago, and the solution that we ultimately chose to get this native yield is by staking the Ether for everybody, including the Mantle Treasury assets on L1, because that's where it's all happening, that's where you get the real yields. Then, of course, bridging that to Mantle and being able to do all the normal DeFi activity but with extra yield on top.

What are the advantages of interacting and staking with Mantle LSP?

J: The whole point of liquid staking is that there is liquidity. In this case, we have a head start. There's a large treasury that is very Ethereum-aligned, so that we can start with a lot of Ether. Then, you also have the DeFi ecosystem. The approach we've taken to the ecosystem apps, especially those we have been showcasing, is to show them much support. We're supporting not just their funding but also the entire stack, and ultimately, what we ask for in return is to take advantage of this amazing opportunity. You're getting access to all this liquidity, and part of the liquidity will certainly be $mETH.

I expect that over time a lot of the apps and a lot of the activity that will be happening on Mantle will be in $mETH. That creates a network effect that makes you want to hold the asset, as this version of ETH will be useful within Mantle Ecosystem.

How does Mantle ensure the security of the protocol?

M: We're doing all kinds of traditional security measures like audits and bug bounties with Unify. Furthermore, we are working with reputable nodes and validators. We take security extremely seriously, not only because it's the right thing to do but also because a lot of our treasury assets are involved.

What are $mETH’s use cases within the DeFi ecosystem?

J: Everything that you can do with ETH, plus the yield. You can hold it in your wallet and generate what we expect to be the highest yield in the space. Holders can also use it for trading collateral and within DeFi applications. Ultimately, you can do as much as you want with it. You can do the basics, get the yield, and go all the way to creative DeFi and everything else.

What are the future plans for Mantle LSP and $mETH integrations?

M: We're looking to integrate $mETH into any decentralized protocol. So far, from DEXs, FusionX and iZUMi have at least integrated. Some lending protocols have been integrated. Some farming products like Swapsicle and so on, but there are a dozen or so more protocols that are working on integrations right now. We're hoping that the entire Mantle DeFi ecosystem and beyond will soon integrate and prioritize $mETH in their offerings.

What else is Mantle working on?

M: Mantle Network v2 is a big one. We're working on a Bedrock update. Once EigenDA is ready once it's live, we're going to be migrating from our current DA solution to EigenDA. And for those who don't know, Mantle DA is using EigenDA technology, and we've worked with EigenLayer closely for over a year now, and have been co-developing this solution. But currently we're self hosting the EigenLayer stack, which is not the full EigenDA solution.

J: The main focus that I'm looking at is creating a rewards hub. So, people can get either launch pool tokens for their $MNT or just extra benefits. We want to tease out a central place within the ecosystem where users can bring their assets, whether it's $mETH, $mUSD, or $MNT, and just get given stuff for being part of our community and get rewarded.

M: We're also working on Mantle Journey. Mantle Journey is our user incentive campaign and program where you can earn MJ miles and other extra things. So, Mantle Journey Season Alpha will end on Jan. 15, and we will be designing new seasons for that, including new partnerships and new creative ways of getting involved. Currently, the reward pool is quite sizable. It's 25 million $MNT. 10 million will go toward protocols, and from that 10 million, half will go back toward user incentives. Then 15 million $MNT will go directly to users through various Mantle Journey campaigns.

Why would people use Mantle LSP opposed to other $MNT pools and platforms with decent APY?

J: If you are bullish on ETH and you want to have that exposure, this is just a better way to have that exposure. If you want to hold your money in dollars because you're very conservative, then we have another product, which is $mUSD. Ultimately, most people want to have both. They want some exposure to volatile assets and some to stable assets. So, they should take advantage of various ones that meet their preferences. I wouldn't say that they have to choose $mETH versus $mUSD.

M: It just doesn't have to be either or, and diversification in general is probably the smart thing to do.