Original title: "How the SEC Could Reshape Ethereum’s Staking Landscape for the Better》
Original author:Margaux Nijkerk, Sam Kessler
Original compilation: Qianwen, ChainCatcher
Original title: "
Original author:Original compilation: Qianwen, ChainCatcherLast week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) abruptly reached a settlement with Kraken, which ended with Kraken shutting down its staking service. This has led to a lot of discussion about whether "staking" services on blockchains such as Ethereum can continue to be found.
According to Ethereum experts and blockchain analysts,
This seems to be bad news for the encryption industry, but it may promote the progress of the industry.Such as helping to decentralize the Ethereum network, forcing service providers to clarify how they earn income for retail investors.The settlement requires Kraken to stop providing “staking services” to U.S. clients. Previously, the service allowed retail investors to “stake” a certain amount of cryptocurrency on the blockchain in exchange for yield.
POS blockchains like Ethereum attract users toPledging Cryptocurrency AssetsThis is similar to an interest payment as a security in exchange for rewards. POW networks like Bitcoin earn revenue through energy-intensive mining.
18% of the shares
Held by Coinbase and Kraken - the two largest platforms that offer staking services.
Kraken’s settlement to list the exchange’s staking products as securities could have implications for the entire staking space. “Decentralized” staking services like Lido and Rocket Pool are wrestling with whether the SEC’s view on staking will actually benefit them long-term. Not relying on intermediaries Helping ethereum run without intermediaries "sole stakers" also see a silver lining in the SEC's action, as it has the potential to make the network more secure and decentralized.
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Pledge service platform
Ethereum staking requires at least 32 ETH (~$50,000). Staking without an intermediary means setting up a computer to act as a "node" on the Ethereum network—a complex task that can lead to serious losses of funds if not done properly.
These hurdles leave room for exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase to help retail investors stake — primarily to earn interest. These two platforms pool users' funds together, eliminate the 32 ETH requirement for users, and take care of running a good node.In a statement, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticized Kraken for its actions, arguing that “staking services are not uniform, and that one-off enforcement actions and crude analysis will not solve the problem.”
In legal filings, the SEC argued that Kraken’s mechanism for calculating the rate of return it pays users is highly problematic. “These benefits are determined by the defendants rather than the underlying blockchain protocol, and these benefits do not necessarily depend on Kraken’s actual benefits from staking,” the committee wrote.
CoinDesk reported last week
, analysts at Coinbase acknowledged in a report that developments around Kraken are likely to affect “the growth rate of staking in the future.”first level title
Decentralized Staking Service
Following the SEC ruling, investors seem to see this as a positive for “decentralized” staking platforms.
Lex Sokolin, chief crypto economist at ethereum research and development firm ConsenSys, told CoinDesk "[in this case] there will be no cryptocurrency exchange management team pooling your funds in your name."
This is the key difference — there is no centralized company or management team — and decentralized products are expected to receive less scrutiny from regulators. "I hope you'll see Lido differently, but I do think it's a very open question, a legal question, and a hard question," Sokolin said.
Lido currently holds a 29% share of all staked ETH (its competitors, such as Rocket Pool, have a significantly smaller share). If the centralized staking service model disappears completely, Lido may take more of its share.
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Pledge alone
Some members of the ethereum community see a silver lining in the SEC's enforcement action, telling CoinDesk it could help shift control of the network (and other blockchains) into more hands.
According to Jaydeep Korde, whose company Launchnodes built the infrastructure to help 32 ETH holders set up nodes, staking services like Kraken undermine the cryptocurrency’s goal of creating a decentralized financial system. “The phenomenon of new intermediaries offering you interest rates through so-called magic black boxes is no different than what we have now,” Korde told CoinDesk.According to Korde, the news about Kraken may finally push those with 32 ETH to stake solo, opting to run their own nodes instead of ceding control to a third party.Ben Edgington, a product manager at Ethereum research and development company ConsenSys, said: "I think this is good for decentralization. In a POS network like Ethereum, a person's equity is equivalent to their power over the network; if one party occupies Ethereum With enough stake (around 50-60%), they could theoretically slow down the network or block certain types of transactions. Having a large centralized entity controlling a large amount of stake is not ideal in terms of protocol and protocol health. "
In the past, Ethereum adopted a proof-of-work system, and a fewlarge mining groupHaving influence over the network that ordinary people don't have, so Ethereum's new proof-of-stake model should make it harder to centralize the network. “Our goal has always been for ethereum to be run by tens of thousands of individual node operators rather than being controlled by three or four large data centers,” Edgington said.
