It’s been a turbulent week for crypto, with RPL and other altcoins continuing to struggle as the token price hovers near $5. While the market remains uncertain, Rocket Pool has exciting upgrades on the way, such as Saturn on the horizon. Until then, the price action will be a bumpy ride. Community members within the Rocket Pool Discord that share their struggles receive a POAP.

Bankless Citizen - Class of 2025 This is your onchain representation of being a Bankless Citizen!

Rocket Pool has had separate quora for on-chain and snapshot voting. This isn't really the intent; it's based on getting similar absolute requirements given that one is a percent of all vote power and the other is a percent of initialized vote power. haloooloolo has volunteered to initialize more vote power so that the difference is small and Rocket Pool can use a single quorum going forward without more tweaks. Buyers of this POAP helped fund this community initiative to initialize on-chain vote power!

The Rocket Pool Smartnode v1.14.0 release includes mandatory client updates for Nethermind, Prysm, Besu, and Reth, alongside Smart Node changes such as removing the 16 ETH minipool option, enhancing deposit prompts, and optimizing RPC calls for oDAO nodes. Minor adjustments were also made to accommodate Saturn-0 and update messages. Shortly after, version 1.14.1 was released to address a breaking change in Prysm and update Lodestar, which is only necessary for Prysm users. Node operators that updated within 72 hours received a POAP.

Rocket Pool has released v1.13.10 of the Smart Node, a recommended update featuring important bug fixes, client updates, and minor enhancements. This version includes updates to Geth, Besu, Reth, Teku, Nimbus, and Nethermind, along with new MEV-Boost support for the Holesky testnet and optimizations for oDAO RPC calls. Additional improvements include Reth peer parameter controls, cleanup for V10, and fixes to various issues. Rocket Pool node operators that were the first to upgrade received a POAP. This month's POAP was designed by talented Icelandic community member IcelandCalling.eth.

As Rocket Pool launches to a new beginning with RP v2, the community takes a trip down memory lane. In the POAP, Stakeman wearing new merch from the soon to be RP Store, represents the future memories we will make as he supports our trip down memory lane for the Rocket Pool community. We are here (at the star in the center) celebrating this amazing crypto-journey and ready to Face Down any challenges together. Familiar faces and the colorful situations we’ve found ourselves in adorn the landscape of our journey. To get this POAP, community members reminisce (in the discord) over past events.

Rocket Pool has released v1.13.8 of the Smart Node. Smart Node 1.13.8 adds contribution guidelines, flags bloXroute Max Profit relay as censoring, supports configuring Nethermind's pruning, and auto-initializes voting power. It also removes the Eden Relay, improves voting command text, and adds a warning for uninitialized voting power during staking after the hotfix. Rocket Pool node operators that updated swiftly received a POAP.

On August 5, a shaky market led to super low prices for the RPL (Rocket Pool) token. As the token dipped below $10, community members shared the state of their portfolios. This POAP was given to members who participated in and witnessed this catastrophic market event.

Rocket Pool has begin the official governance process for the RPIP-49 tokenomics rework after extensive stakeholder feedback and polishing of the specifications. A sentiment poll has been posted to decide whether to move the rework to a snapshot vote, with the flexibility to make minor adjustments during implementation. Alternative proposals by 1kx and ib1gymnast are also under consideration, and voters should read the details and make an informed decision on the future of Rocket Pool. Only participants that voted, left a meaningful comment, and posted in the appropriate thread received a POAP.

After many years of progress and a lengthy approval process, Spot Ethereum Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) opened for trading on July 23, 2024. The SEC approved eight ETFs, including the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV), Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF (CETH), Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), BlackRock's (BLK) iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) and the Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF (QETH). Funds raised from this POAP will go to Aestus. The Aestus MEV-Boost Relay is a neutral, non-censoring relay, which emerged from conversations between members of the EthFinance and EthStaker communities who see the need to develop credibly neutral architecture for the Ethereum staking ecosystem. This POAP was developed by superphiz.eth with input from nixorokish.eth, with art by electropillow.eth