Restaking allocation is an active decision: which services to secure, how much slashing risk to accept, which operators to use. Most protocols make that decision centrally and describe it vaguely. Mellow names the person making it, publishes the mandate, and lets depositors choose.
Why curation is the honest framing
Somebody always decides which services your collateral secures. Presenting that as a protocol parameter obscures it; presenting it as a curator's mandate makes it assessable. Depositors can compare curators' risk appetites and track records, which is a more informative choice than picking between protocols whose allocation policies are equally opaque.
What it costs
Vaults are individually small, so liquidity within each is minimal and exits depend on the underlying restaking withdrawal path. Fees vary by curator. And curator risk is genuinely new: you are underwriting a manager's judgement as well as the contracts, with limited track record to judge it by in a category barely two years old.
Architecture
Built for both EigenLayer and Symbiotic, with vault isolation containing damage from any single strategy. Audited with no incidents since launch.
Who should use it
Depositors who want to choose their restaking risk profile deliberately and are comfortable evaluating curators. Those who want a simple restaked position should use ether.fi.