Darren Langley is the General Manager of Rocket Pool, a decentralized liquid staking protocol on the Ethereum network. ^{[1] [2] [3]} With a career spanning over two decades in the technology industry, he has a background in product development, project management, and business analysis, primarily within Australia's digital agency, finance, and insurance sectors. ^{[4] [5]} Since joining Rocket Pool, Langley has become a prominent public advocate for decentralized technologies, focusing on lowering the barriers to entry for Ethereum staking and preserving the network's credible neutrality. ^{[4] [6]}​

Education

Langley attended RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, from 2000 to 2002, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Business with a focus on Marketing. ^[5]

Career

Langley's career is marked by a long tenure in leadership and delivery roles within the traditional technology and digital media sectors before he transitioned to the cryptocurrency industry. His professional experience includes roles in software development, team leadership, and digital production for major corporate clients. ^{[4] [3]}​

Career Before Rocket Pool

From February 2007 to September 2011, Langley worked as a Senior Business Analyst at RACV, a major Australian insurance and financial services organization. Following this, he moved into digital project management, working as a Digital Project Manager for Reading Room from October 2011 to September 2013 and then as a Senior Project Manager at IE (Imagination Entertainment) until January 2015. Over the next few years, he held executive producer roles at the mobile solutions company Somo and the interactive experience firm Art Processors. His last role before joining Rocket Pool was as a Senior Digital Producer at the global digital agency R/GA, a position he held from January 2018 to September 2021, where he managed large-scale digital projects. ^[5]​

Involvement with Rocket Pool

Langley's engagement with Rocket Pool began well before his official appointment as General Manager. In late 2019, he demonstrated a deep understanding of and involvement with the project by authoring detailed articles explaining the protocol's mechanics, including "The Rocket Pool Staking Protocol — Part 1" (November 2019) and "Rocket Pool — Staking Protocol V2.5" (December 2019). ^[5]​

He was formally appointed General Manager of Rocket Pool in October 2021. ^{[2] [4]} In this capacity, he leads the decentralized core team, oversees the project's overall strategy and product development, manages operations, and serves as a key public spokesperson. ^{[3] [7]} His LinkedIn profile is based in Melbourne, Australia, while the Rocket Pool headquarters is listed in Brisbane. ^{[5] [7]}​

Under Langley's management, Rocket Pool experienced a significant period of growth. Following the Ethereum Merge, interest in liquid staking increased. Between December 2022 and February 2023, the total value locked (TVL) in the protocol doubled, surpassing $1 billion on February 9, 2023. ^[8] Commenting on this milestone in early 2023, Langley noted the project's long development history and the accelerated adoption post-Merge, stating, "We've been building for five years so this has been a slow burn. But really since the Merge, things have just taken off... It feels like we're just getting started." ^[4] He also anticipated further growth, remarking, “So much capital on the sidelines has been waiting for withdrawals to be enabled on the Beacon Chain. We anticipate this growth to be a sign of things to come.” ^[5]​

Public Advocacy and Appearances

As a public face for Rocket Pool, Langley frequently speaks and writes about the importance of decentralization, accessible staking, and sustainable business models for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). ^{[4] [6]}​

Philosophy on Decentralization

A central theme of Langley's public commentary is the defense of Ethereum's core tenets of decentralization and censorship resistance. He has described validator concentration as an "existential threat to Ethereum" and positions Rocket Pool as a direct response to this risk. In a March 2023 podcast appearance, he articulated the project's mission: "Our mission is to uphold the decentralization and censorship resistance of Ethereum. We're a community-owned project... we want to be credibly neutral public infrastructure for Ethereum." ^[6]​

He often contrasts Rocket Pool's model with that of its largest competitor, Lido. He highlighted the key difference in the same podcast: "The main difference [with Lido] is that we are a permissionless protocol... Anyone can come along, with 8 ETH and some RPL, and spin up a node and start earning commission... With Lido, they have a curated validator set... they select a professional group of validators... The end result for them is a more centralized network." His professional motivation, as stated in his conference biographies, is to be "dedicated to lowering the barriers-to-entry for Ethereum staking so that everyone can participate." ^{[6] [4]}​

Conference and Media Appearances

Langley represents Rocket Pool at major industry conferences. In October 2022, he spoke at Devcon in Bogotá. His talk, titled "The B-word: Business," focused on the importance of applying sustainable business principles to a DAO. The talk's description summarized his message: "A dev conference needs to talk about building a sustainable business. We're a DAO, but we run as a business. Let me tell you how." He has also been a speaker at other events, including Devcon SEA. ^{[5] [4]}​

In addition to conferences, Langley appears on podcasts to discuss Ethereum staking. He was a guest on The Defiant podcast in 2023, where he provided a deep dive into Rocket Pool, its history since its ICO, the utility of its RPL and rETH tokens, and its role in mitigating centralization risks in the liquid staking sector. ^[6]​

Writings

Langley is an author on the platform Medium, where he has published in-depth articles about Rocket Pool. His early writings from 2019 served to explain the foundational mechanics of the staking protocol to the community before its full launch. He has continued to use the platform to explain major protocol upgrades, such as the Atlas upgrade, and to articulate the long-term vision for the project. ^{[5] [2]}​