Rocket Pool is a first of its kind ETH Proof of Stake Protocol, designed to be community owned, decentralised, trustless and compatible with staking in Ethereum. It was first conceived in late 2016 and has since had over 5 successful public betas over the life span of ETH development.
The core premise behind a protocol is to ensure the network is not beholden to any one party. This is a principle directly linked to Ethereum and ETH itself, and a mindset used at every stage of the process as Rocket Pool has evolved.