Ethereum 2.0 staking

Icecold

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 21, 2013
Messages
315
I couldn't find another thread about this here, so hopefully this is on topic for this subforum. Is anybody here staking with Ethereum 2.0 either solo or in a pool or has any input on it? From what I can tell, you have a couple options, but please correct me if I'm wrong on any of it-

Solo staking - requires 32 ETH (~$71k at current prices) and also an always on, always internet connected PC to run as a validator.

Pool staking - requires less ETH. May or may not require running a validator machine.

The main risk seems to be that your ETH is held up until the Ethereum 2.0 / proof of stake fully transitions. A lot of the staking pools seem fairly sketch, and solo staking you can lose some of your ETH if you don't hold up your end of it by having an always on reliable PC running as a validator. Any other risks or issues that I missed? It seems like if you could come up with the 32 ETH to solo stake / run a validator PC it could be pretty profitable to jump on while it's still early?
 
It looks like Coinbase offers staking for Ethereum 2.0 now as well with no minimum staking amount requirements. I'm not sure if you make any less though by staking through there than running your own validator PC, though.(it lists "up to 6%" on Coinbase, I'm pretty sure I was seeing much larger ranges other places). If you're planning to HODL your eth for years I'm not sure there's a ton of downside to staking? It probably is also more secure than normally leaving crypto on an exchange since the staked eth isn't liquid until ethereum and ethereum 2.0 merge so I don't think somebody could get in your Coinbase account and send it all to somebody else?
 
e main risk seems to be that your ETH is held up until the Ethereum 2.0 / proof of stake fully transitions.

One of the benefits of staking on pools and exchanges is many of them offer a method to unstake if you have an emergency need for ETH or funds. On staking, they convert it to another token that can be traded back for unstaked Ethereum, though not 1:1 until withdrawals are enabled on the protocol. On Binance the current ratio is ~0.925

It looks like Coinbase offers staking for Ethereum 2.0 now as well with no minimum staking amount requirements. I'm not sure if you make any less though by staking through there than running your own validator PC, though.(it lists "up to 6%" on Coinbase, I'm pretty sure I was seeing much larger ranges other places).

Right now, the APR is about 7.8% non-compounding for solo staking. The pools and exchanges usually take a fee for handling the validator though the non-US Binance claims that they offer staking with no fees on their side. The daily distributions that I'm getting from them are almost spot on.
 
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I appreciate the info! I went ahead and signed up for the Ethereum staking waitlist on Coinbase just to see if they provide more information on how they handle it, historical returns, etc.. I know they don't currently have a way to sell or unstake your Ethereum, but it says they will at some point later this year. The small amount of Eth I currently have I don't have any intention of selling even if it goes way up or way down, so it sounds like staking would be a good idea once I figure out where my best option is. 7.8%(or even 6% at Coinbase) sounds great though.
 
The staking waitlist for Ethereum 2.0 on Coinbase was just a few days, so I'm now signed up for it. As compensation for providing the validator, and protecting against any slashing, etc. they take a 25% commission on all staking rewards which is how they get to the 6% quoted. Reading their terms, one thing stood out to me as something I knew was a risk, but it was the first time I've seen it spelled out 100% anywhere -technically the transition to Ethereum 2.0 could never happen, and whatever eth you stake is then in limbo/gone forever. It seems pretty unlikely, but it is technically possible. 6% annual return for doing nothing other than holding on to the the eth for a year or two seems like a pretty solid deal though.
 
If you are looking for a way to earn interest on your ETH check out https://nexo.io/earn-crypto
You can earn 5% if you do a 1 month fixed term.
Have you used that website? The interest rate seems too good to be true especially on fiat - what are they doing to be able to pay 10% interest on USD? If it's legit, it would definitely be great to have a savings account that pays 10% interest, but I feel like there's a catch I'm not seeing.
 
I use it only for earning interest but they also do offer loans. US users are restricted to lower rates due to not being able to easily obtain the NEXO token. To get the max rate you would need to have the interest paid in NEXO and have your portfolio composed of 10% NEXO. That means you would likely only earn 8% on USD Coin. The biggest disappointment I have had was that they reduced the interest earn percentage unexpectedly a few weeks ago. If you still feel uneasy about it you could always deposit a low cost low fee coin like XLM to see how it all works.
 
I'm becoming more skeptical of ETH 2.0 the longer it takes. With Polygon it has become less important and I have a feeling a lot of ETH's value has more to do with being the miners coin of choice rather than actual technical merits.

My tinfoil hat may just be too tight, but I'm not willing to stake at this point.
 
I'm becoming more skeptical of ETH 2.0 the longer it takes. With Polygon it has become less important and I have a feeling a lot of ETH's value has more to do with being the miners coin of choice rather than actual technical merits.

My tinfoil hat may just be too tight, but I'm not willing to stake at this point.
ETH's hardware-minability has been great for engagement, but its exchange rate isn't about miners. And PoW ETH mining is a red herring here.

With few exceptions, ETH 2.0 staking is for suckers, because 32 ETH is a significant amount of capital to lock up for a crappy "up to 5%" annual return and not even be able to borrow against it. Far too many other things that can be done now to leverage that kind of capital and compound it faster.
 
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ETH's hardware-minability has been great for engagement, but its exchange rate isn't about miners. And PoW ETH mining is a red herring here.

With few exceptions, ETH 2.0 staking is for suckers, because 32 ETH is a significant amount of capital to lock up for a crappy "up to 5%" annual return and not even be able to borrow against it. Far too many other things that can be done now to leverage that kind of capital and compound it faster.
If you had purchased enough ETH to solo stake on the day I made this post it would have cost $69,242(32*2163.82) and you would now have 32.88 eth worth $148,135. That is assuming 5% staking rewards even though it's likely higher.
 
If you had purchased enough ETH to solo stake on the day I made this post it would have cost $69,242(32*2163.82) and you would now have 32.88 eth worth $148,135. That is assuming 5% staking rewards even though it's likely higher.
The fiat exchange rate of ETH went up, that has nothing to do with staking though.

Staking is like a 5% bribe to baghold. Major market correction/retrace and its stuck instead of being able to stop-loss.

Probably not much downside for early adopters and whales with thousands of ETH to do a few nodes, but for most people on a forum it doesn't make sense when considering all the other ways to leverage that amount of ETH more efficiently.
 
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I definitely understand what you're saying. 'Bagholding' is what I do, though, so getting 5% extra in exchange for what I would be doing anyways is a boon. I have no intention of triggering a capital gain by trying to time the market, and if it drops far enough that it's a capital loss I ought to hold it at that point anyways. My investment horizon is long term. I suppose if I had enough eth that it was worth being concerned about having it tied up during a crypto market correction that would make me have a different perspective, but I don't.(if I did, I would be retired and have already sold it :ROFLMAO: )
 
Saw this pop-up on twitter.. looks like these guys found a couple types of attack on ETH 2.0, the phrases and the huge PDF file is way over my head though lol.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.01315

We present two attacks targeting the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Ethereum consensus protocol. The first attack suggests a fundamental conceptual incompatibility between PoS and the Greedy Heaviest-Observed Sub-Tree (GHOST) fork choice paradigm employed by PoS Ethereum. In a nutshell, PoS allows an adversary with a vanishing amount of stake to produce an unlimited number of equivocating blocks. While most equivocating blocks will be orphaned, such orphaned `uncle blocks' still influence fork choice under the GHOST paradigm, bestowing upon the adversary devastating control over the canonical chain. While the Latest Message Driven (LMD) aspect of current PoS Ethereum prevents a straightforward application of this attack, our second attack shows how LMD specifically can be exploited to obtain a new variant of the balancing attack that overcomes a recent protocol addition that was intended to mitigate balancing-type attacks. Thus, in its current form, PoS Ethereum without and with LMD is vulnerable to our first and second attack, respectively.
 
I'm becoming more skeptical of ETH 2.0 the longer it takes. With Polygon it has become less important and I have a feeling a lot of ETH's value has more to do with being the miners coin of choice rather than actual technical merits.

My tinfoil hat may just be too tight, but I'm not willing to stake at this point.
Saw this pop-up on twitter.. looks like these guys found a couple types of attack on ETH 2.0, the phrases and the huge PDF file is way over my head though lol.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.01315
I think every single person I've spoken to who has staked a coin has gotten screwed on it because they can't sell when it dumps. ETH probably won't dump as hard as some other altcoins, but I would definitely consider an exchange staking method where you can sell in case of an emergency even if it's at a loss, but then you're leaving your crypto on an exchange.
 
I believe all crypto holders should really analyze staking before getting into it. Giving up the possibility of adjusting to coins value volatility shouldn't be taken for granted. I like staking, but only with relatively stable coins and with an insurance of being able to sell in case of a dramatic drop of value.
 
No matter what others say, I believe in the capability of ethereum. I am quite sure that it will rise and so, I am locking up my wallet until it does.
 
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