Ethereum: Are Coinbase, Kraken party to centralization
ambcrypto.comEthereum‘s main chain is expected to merge with its Beacon Chain later this year, effectively turning it into a Proof of Stake protocol. In anticipation of this, users have increasingly been staking their ETH, with the staking deposit contract amassing over 9.41 million Ether worth over $24.83 billion at press time.
While anticipation for the Merge is mounting, so are concerns over increasing centralization within beacon chain clients being used by validators. This is especially true for validators run by centralized exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken, who “hold 78k out of 296k validators on the Ethereum beacon chain.”
Validators are those that have staked their Ether into the deposit contract in exchange for the ability to validate blocks and also receive rewards.
A community member recently pointed out the same on Twitter, adding that these exchanges are using Prysmatic Labs to run all of their validators. This could lead to client centralization within the network, making it more susceptible to attacks.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>.@coinbase and @krakensupport hold 78k out of 296k validators on the Ethereum beacon chain and they're running @prylabs without any published plans to switch to a non-majority client. Their radio silence on an issue that impacts your funds and our network should infuriate you.— superphiz.eth
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