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Vitalik Champions 1 ETH Staking Minimum Dream: Here’s How It Materializes

Vitalik Champions 1 ETH Staking Minimum Dream: Here’s How It Materializes

DailycoinDailycoin2024/10/04 22:51
By:Dailycoin
  • Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled plans to significantly reduce the solo Ethereum staking requirement.
  • Some work to achieve this goal is already underway.
  • The Ethereum co-founder has tipped solo staking to serve as a layer of defense for the network.

A narrative often promoted by blockchain enthusiasts is the ability of any network participant to take part in securing and maintaining the integrity of their network. In reality, however, for several leading blockchains, this level of network participation is often limited to a select few by financial and technical constraints—a paradox that continues to fuel centralization in an industry seeking to eradicate the need for trust.

Among the networks facing this challenge is Ethereum , where the minimum requirements for individuals to validate the network have driven many to use pooled solutions run by centralized entities. To address the growing centralization concerns, Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin , has espoused a vision to significantly cut down the barriers to entry so that a larger amount of users can have a more hands-on role in the network.

From 32 to 1: Vitalik’s Roadmap to Greater Ethereum Decentralization

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled plans to significantly reduce the main barrier of entry to becoming an Ethereum validator : the minimum staking requirement. On Thursday, October 3, the developer expressed a grand vision to lower the minimum staking requirement for validators from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, as well as the bandwidth required to run a validator, to allow more persons to participate in the validation of the network, and by so doing, improve its decentralization.

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Vitalik suggested the Ethereum network could achieve these goals through two key innovations: PeerDAS and Orbit SSF. PeerDAS, short for Peer Data Availability Sampling, seeks to offer more abundant data availability for blobs , an upgrade critical to Ethereum’s scalability. On the other hand, Orbit SSF is a proposed component in Ethereum’s single-slot finality roadmap that aims to create a solo-staker-friendly validator set management system. 

I think there's a sane version of this where we recognize that 32 ETH is much more of a barrier than bandwidth reqs, and temporarily do a trade where we up the bandwidth reqs a bit and in exchange drop the staking deposit minimum to eg. 16 or 24 ETH.

It's net-good for both…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 3, 2024

The system is named Orbit as it will comprise a “stable core” and “rotating periphery.” The stable core will feature validators with stake greater or equal to a set ETH threshold, while the rotating periphery will comprise validators with stake below the threshold. The stable core will always make up the set, while validators in the rotating periphery get selected at a probability calculated by a proportion of their stake. As such, regardless of their stake, all validators get a chance to validate the network and earn rewards.

While PeerDAS is expected to come with the second package of Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Pectra, sometime in 2025, there is no clear timeline for Orbit SSF since Ethereum’s single-slot finality roadmap is still in its early stages. 

With these upgrade timeline uncertainties placing Vitalik’s 1 ETH solo staking requirement dream sometime in the future, the Ethereum co-founder also proposed a halfway solution to raise bandwidth requirements and reduce the minimum staking requirement to 16 ETH or 24 ETH.

Vitalik’s recent statements on his vision for Ethereum staking and validation come alongside his vocal advocacy for solo staking in recent weeks.

“A Layer of Defense” for Ethereum?

During a Singapore-based Home Staking Summit in September 2024, Vitalik described solo stakers as “a layer of defense” against centralization risks like censorship and a 51% attack, as they typically lack organizational alignment.

A prevalence of solo stakers ensures that even when specific organizations try to censor transactions on the network by not including them in their blocks, solo stakers with no incentive to do so can still pick them up. So at worst, transactions can only be delayed, and not wholly censored.

Until Vitalik’s vision becomes a reality, however, pooled staking service providers continue to dominate the Ethereum staking scene, with Lido at the top of the pile at 28% and Coinbase a distant second with nearly 11.5%, per Dune Analytics data.

On the Flipside 

  • Vitalik’s solo staking dream may take a long time to be fully realized.

Why This Matters

Ethereum has faced growing centralization and censorship concerns following its transition to Proof-of-Stake . Vitalik’s recent statements offer hope by outlining a path to tackle these concerns fully.

Read this for more on Ethereum:
Ethereum Selling Spree Continues as Whale Dumps $48M  

Grayscale has launched an Aave Trust. Find out more:
Aave Gets Grayscale Trust Boost in Nod to Rising Interest

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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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