Recently, I've been looking at LST/re-staking again. Honestly, where does the profit come from? Half is the interest from the underlying staking itself, and the other half is “someone willing to spend money to buy security/services,” with protocols offering some incentives, project subsidies, or sharing fees from other sources. It sounds appealing, but I always feel like many times it's just using future money to fill the current APR; after the hype, all that's left is a mess.

The risks aren't complicated: contract permissions, whether it can be paused/upgraded, how many layers the funds have gone through, and who takes the blame if something goes wrong. Re-staking stacks things even thicker; a single hole can cause a chain reaction of drops. Recently, the community has been arguing about privacy coins' mixing and compliance boundaries. I find it even more annoying... When rules change, liquidity first runs away, and in the end, we're the ones caught in the middle, those of us who love to test the waters.

Now I've set smaller goals, not chasing “explosions,” just focusing on permissions and fund flows. Surviving one day is enough; maybe I can last longer. I accept the risks if I hit a snag, at least it's not something I greedily caused myself.