What is a Rocket Pool minipool?

Rocket Pool's node guides define a minipool as a unique smart-contract instance on the execution layer that a node operator manages. That contract handles both the operator's bond and the borrowed ETH coming from the protocol's pooled staking side.

Once those pieces are combined, the minipool can create the corresponding Ethereum validator. So the minipool is the operational bridge between Rocket Pool's pooled staking model and Ethereum's validator requirement.

Minipools are Rocket Pool's way of letting independent operators run validators without each operator needing to provide the full 32 ETH alone. That is one of the main reasons Rocket Pool can support both liquid stakers and node operators within one protocol.

Instead of treating all staking as a single pooled black box, Rocket Pool uses minipools to keep validator responsibility attached to specific node operators while still drawing in pooled ETH.

Rocket Pool's Atlas documentation explains that minipools can be created with either 8 ETH or 16 ETH bonds, with 8 ETH minipools highlighted as the lower-capital path introduced to broaden node participation.

That change matters because when people ask how much ETH it takes to run a Rocket Pool node, they are really asking what kind of minipool they are creating and what collateral requirements go with it.

A minipool is not only the thing you create at launch. It is also the object through which rewards, exits, delegate upgrades, and validator lifecycle events are managed over time.

That is why minipools show up in so many Rocket Pool governance questions. They are where protocol rules and node-operator behavior meet.