Ethereum staking services agree to 22% limit of all validators

September 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The 22% self-limit rule ensures at least four major staking entities would need to collude in order for the chain to reach finalization.

At least five Ethereum liquid staking providers have either imposed or are working to impose a self-limit rule in which they promise not to own more than 22% of the Ethereum staking market — seen as a move to ensure the Ethereum network remains decentralized.

Among the Ethereum staking providers either already committed or are working to commit to the self-limit rule include Rocket Pool, StakeWise, Stader Labs and Diva Staking, according to Ethereum core developer Superphiz.

Puffer Finance, another liquid staking service, also announced its commitment to the self-limit.

These providers are committed (or are in the process of committing) to self-limit to @Rocket_Pool @stakewise_io @staderlabs @divastaking
— superphiz.eth ️ (@superphiz) August 30, 2023

The proposal presumably aims to address concerns of Ethereum staking becoming increasingly centralized.

As to why the self-limit was proposed at 22%, Superphiz explained that because 66% of validators need to agree on the state of Ethereum, setting the limit below 22% means at least four major entities must collude in order for the chain to reach finalization.

Finality is the point where transactions on a blockchain are considered immutable, supposedly ensuring that transactions within a block cannot be altered.

The idea was proposed by Superphiz in May 2022 when he questioned whether a staking pool would be willing to put the health of the chain before its own profits.

Interestingly, the largest Ethereum liquid staking provider, Lido Finance, voted by a 99.81% majority not to self-limit back in June.

“They have expressed an intention to control the majority of validators on the beacon chain,” Superphiz said in an Aug. 31 post.

Votes casted from Lido (LDO) token holders on the self-limiting proposal. Source: Snapshot

Lido currently dominates the Ethereum staking market, accounting 32.4% of all staked Ether, while the next entity, Coinbase, accounts for only 8.7% of the market, according to data from Dune Analytics.

*Ethereum stakers by staking amount and market share, showing that Lido is the only one above the 22% threshold. Source: Dune Analytics*

Who’s in the right? Mixed reactions from the Ethereum community

One industry pundit, “Mippo,” explained on Aug. 31 that the self-limit proposal has nothing to do with “Ethereum alignment” — a principle understood to enable credible neutrality and permissionless innovation on Ethereum.

Mippo claimed those trying to push the proposal wouldn’t make way if they were in Lido’s position.

“Everyone is doing the economically selfish and rational thing here,” Mippo concluded.

Yeah because they have way less market share than that now… easy to chirp from the cheap seats.

This has nothing to do with “Ethereum alignment.” None of these teams would self limit were they in Lido’s place.

Everyone is doing the economically selfish and rational thing…
— Mippo (@MikeIppolito_) August 31, 2023

“Folks in the ETH community should not shame more user-friendly solutions as greedy products,” said another observer.

However, others were more wary of the potential centralization issues at hand, describing Lido’s market share dominance as “disgusting and selfish.”

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Only 0.04% of Ethereum validators have been slashed since 2020, says core dev

February 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Attestation Violation

Only 226 validators have been slashed since Ethereum staking began, with 75 of those coming from a single event in February 2021.

The Ethereum ecosystem has seen only 226 validators slashed since the launch of the Beacon Chain on Dec. 1, 2020 — amounting to just 0.04% of 524,060 validators, according to an Ethereum core developer.

Slashing is a process where a validator breaches the proof-of-stake consensus rules, which often results in the removal of that validator from the network and slashing a portion of the staked Ether (ETH) that the validator provided as collateral.

Such slim odds of being slashed were highlighted by Ethereum core developer “Superphiz” in a Feb. 23 Twitter post, which suggests that people shouldn’t be concerned about staking ETH for that particular reason.

226 out of 523,000 validators on the beacon chain have been slashed. This is nothing to lose sleep over. Many slashings have occurred during failed system migration. Here are four emerging best practice tips to avoid this:https://t.co/wleR4YQmDD
— superphiz.eth (@superphiz) February 22, 2023

The developer also explained “four emerging best practices” to reduce those odds even further.

One of these practices was to wipe any existing chain data on old staking machines and to reinstall and reformat the validator where necessary, said Superphiz, noting that many slashings occur due to “failed systems migrations.”

Superphiz then suggested using “doppelganger detection,” which checks whether the validator’s keys are active before starting the validation process.

While this can impact validator uptime, he explained that “perfect uptime” isn’t worth getting slashed in the grand scheme of things:

“It's wise to throw away $0.06 to save $1700. (A slashing costs about 1 Ether).”

The developer said it is also worth watching buffers and logs on the Beacon Chain to become aware of any potential problems that may arise.

*Log of the slashed validators on the Beacon Chain.* *Source: Beaconcha.in*

If something feels wrong, Superphiz suggested “unplugging everything” and to “come back” when the problem has been identified and a proposed solution is set in place.

The developer also noted that over 150 of the 226 slashings have been caused by services rather than “home stakers.”

*Staked ETH and number of active validators on the Beacon Chain. Source: Beaconcha.in*

Slashing can occur due to an “attestation” or a “proposal” violation, according to the Ethereum Foundation.

An attestation violation is one where a malicious validator attempts to change the history of a block or “double votes” by attesting two candidates for the same block.

A proposal violation occurs when a validator proposes and signs two different blocks for the same slot.

The majority of slashing events have come from attestation violations, according to data from beaconcha.in.

One of the largest slashing events occurred on Feb. 4, 2021, when staking infrastructure provider “Staked” had 75 of its validators slashed for producing competing blocks. Staked said the attestation violation came about due to a “technical issue.”

Since the Beacon Chain merged with the Ethereum proof-of-work chain on Sept. 15, only 35 of the total 226 slashings have taken place, according to beaconcha.in, which suggests that the Merge has not had a profound impact on slashing rates.

With about 16.7 million ETH staked (according to beaconcha.in) out of 120.4 million ETH currently in circulation (according to CoinGecko), the percentage of ETH staked is about 13.9%.

ETH can be staked via a centralized exchange, by delegation to a third-party validator network, or by running on an independent node, which requires 32 ETH.