Entry threshold for Ethereum validators could rise by 6400%

The minimum balance for Ethereum network validators should be increased from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, according to the initiators of the proposal. The main argument: changing the limit will increase the efficiency of the blockchain.

Ethereum’s core developers are drawing the community’s attention to the fact that the exponential growth of validators has a negative impact on the efficiency of the network and does not allow quick resolution of problems faced by large node operators.

According to the authors of the idea, the limit of 32 ETH was originally proposed to guarantee decentralization. However, this unintentionally led to an exponential increase in the number of validators. Currently, more than 600,000 validators are connected to the network, and about 90,000 more are waiting to be activated. In this connection, the load on Ethereum becomes excessively high.

Proponents of the proposed solution say that the adjustment of the balance limit will benefit large node operators, such as cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, Coinbase, which manages tens of thousands of validators. Increasing the balance limit for validators will allow large node operators to optimize operations by serving fewer validators at higher rates, indirectly reducing complexity and resource requirements.

Since the developers of the Ethereum network could not reach a consensus on a possible increase in the limit of validator balances, the continuation of the discussion and the collection of community opinions was moved to the social media platforms ETHMagicians and Discord.

Earlier, the co-founder of Ethereum published a post about three “major technical innovations” that are necessary to guarantee the success of the network of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization.