Trust teardown: what a first-time visitor cannot learn on a Solana staking landing page

The Solana staking landing page on marinade.finance raises three major trust concerns for a first-time visitor.

First, the "Instant Unstake" feature is presented ambiguously. The landing page claims "Instant Unstake / Unstake Solana from any validator" and describes it as "Instantly access your SOL from any validator with Marinade. No liquid token needed." However, the cost of unstaking is only hinted at in the hero card, which mentions a "small fee" without specifying how much.

This makes it unclear whether the "Instant" option involves a fee or not. To build trust, the page should explicitly state the unstaking fee, such as "Unstake now for 0.1%" alongside the option for "free" native unbonding.

Second, the promised 8% APY is not reconciled with the actual yield a visitor would receive. The call-to-action directs visitors to "Connect your wallet → Delegate staking to Marinade → Earn up to 8% APY", but fails to disclose the net APY after accounting for validator commissions or protocol fees. The page only mentions a "0% fee validator", which is misleading as it only refers to the protocol fee, while validator commissions can be up to 5%.

To enhance credibility, the landing page should clearly display the net APY after fees, with an as-of date, and label the yield 8% APY after validator commission. The tile stating "0% fee" should be clarified to differentiate between the protocol fee and validator commission.

Third, the security assurances are asserted rather than demonstrated. The headline states "Protected Staking Rewards / PSR covers slashing and validator underperformance risk by compensating for changes in validator fees or performance", but the page lacks specific audit details. The "Audited since 2021" tile and the claim of "6x" audits by five companies are present, but the page does not specify the audit firms, dates, scope of audits, or SOC 2 certification periods.

Additionally, there is no transparency regarding slashing history or the number of validators covered under the PSR. To earn a visitor's trust, the page should provide concrete details like "5 audits, last one by XYZ firm on [date], scope: slashing & performance risk coverage, SOC 2 Type II report period [period]". Moreover, the TVL and holder counts should be explicitly dated and split across validators to avoid ambiguity.