Ethereum continues its ascent – Since the end of 2020, the Ethereum network has been facing significant congestion issues. To counter this phenomenon, several solutions have been devised. However, the latter first require a transition from proof of work to proof of stake. Transition planned for June 2022, via the deployment of The Merge.
10,000,000 ETH to secure Ethereum
At the end of 2020, Ethereum made the front page of the specialized media following the launch of the beacon chain. As a reminder, the beacon chain is a blockchain in proof of stake which will act as a consensus layer once the update The Merge will be deployed.
This network is based on a multitude of validators, responsible for verifying transactions and proposing new blocks. To operate a validator node, users must deposit 32 ETH. That’s about $82,000 at the current price on the beacon chain’s deposit contract.
Since its launch in November 2020, the beacon chain’s deposit agreement has brought together more than 10 million ETHor approximately $26 billion. Thus, the consensus layer of Ethereum now accounts for more than 312,000 validator nodes.
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Client Diversity: Ethereum’s Sword of Damocles
However, with the move to proof of stake approaching, a major problem persists: that of the lack of diversity in clients used.
Thus, Ethereum has chosen to be a multi-client ecosystem, namely that there are several different software to operate a node. This choice makes it possible to reduce the dependence on a single implementation.
This problem is far from recent. Indeed, we discussed it on the Journal du Coin last January. Unfortunately, the situation has changed little since then.
Thus, last January, the beacon chain was dangerously centralized around the use of the Prysm client, representing more than 68% of the network nodes. Despite a major communication campaign around the importance of using clients other than Prysm, the situation seems frozen.
In effect, Prysm currently represents 66% of validator nodes operating on the beacon chain. That is only 2% less than at the start of the year. Behind him, we find the Lighthouse client with only 18% of the nodes.
However, the main staking pools, namely Coinbase and Kraken, had announced that they were working on the use of a client mix to reduce this centralization. This news was positively received by the community, which had however specified that it was waiting for real on-chain results before declaring victory.
The switch to proof of stake could well save Ethereum from the regulatory escalation that could occur in Europe. In fact, the European Union has just to add a mention prohibiting blockchains in proof of work in the revision of the MiCA law.
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