Hi Everyone 👋. Lots going on at Blox as we continue to build out Blox Staking while developing the foundation of the decentralized pools.
Our offer still stands, if you’re interested in joining development efforts for SSV with the Ethereum Foundation, we’re waiting for you on Discord 🤘
BLOX STATS
Mainnet Validators
Active: 240
Deposited: 8
Total: 248
Staked: 7936 ETH
Rate: 99.929%
Effectiveness: 94.971%
BLOX STAKING UPDATES
It’s Validator Import Time 🎊 😎
With Blox version 1.3.1 if you’re running a validator using a different staking service or DIY setup, you can move it on over to Blox Staking and stake the non-custodial way!
Why is this such a big deal?
Because this is the first time that an Eth2 staking platform has facilitated validator imports – and to a fully non-custodial set up no less 😎
The whole process takes about 15 mins, with less than 10 mins of downtime and you can import up to 50 validators 💪. You might miss an attestation or two, but we promise it will be worth your while!
Make sure to check out the Import guide and reach out to us on Discord if you need any help.
ETHEREUM FOUNDATION GRANT
In case you missed it, the SSV team met earlier this week for a thorough overview of the tech’s use cases and benefits.
TL;DR: SSV = “creating better validators”
By splitting the validator key using SSV, at-home validators, staking providers and staking pools can implement new node configurations and protect against multiple modes of failure leading to more robust systems with more redundancy.
Security and performance should be improved simultaneously. The implications are far reaching and can expand past Eth2 to other blockchains as well 🤓
ETH2 PROGRESS REPORT
The Eth2 core team largely accepted the HF1 proposal for the first hardfork of the Beacon Chain.
It will take place around June and will have implications on the Eth1-Eth2 merge, scalability solutions, and validator rewards/penalties with the following key takeaways:
🔥 Sharding only data – simplifying layer 1 significantly.
🔥Layer 2 rollups- for execution sharding + enabling the separation of the merge from sharding. TBD which will come first.
🔥 The executable Beacon Chain– a mesh of Eth2 PoS and Eth1 data execution means faster and smoother delivery of the merge – Woohoo!
🔥 Accounting reform – a couple of adjustments that focus on penalizing true malicious behaviors, while minimizing penalties when not deserved.
A proposal was also merged to simplify withdrawals when enabled! Eth2 spec #2149 allows for withdrawals to a specified address through a normal Eth1 transaction.
Technical developments aside, the Beacon Chain is still going strong, the activation queue has shrunk to about 2 days, while there is over 3M ETH staked and slowly growing 👏
BLOX IN THE NEWS
FEATURED ARTICLE
An Introduction to Secret Shared Validators (SSV) for Ethereum 2.0
Alon Muroch
Different staking setups have emerged in recent months, from DIY configurations all the way to staking pools. What hasn’t changed is the actual infrastructure on which these different services are built. Due to the stringent rules that the Eth2 slashing protocol defines, all staking configurations must run a validator using a single validator client.
The constraint of running just 1 validator instance influences staking pool designs to be more centralized and less secure. The SSV project is developing a technology that enables the splitting of an Eth2 validator key between several operators in a trustless, decentralized and secure way. This reduces the reliance on any single point of failure that might affect a stakers validator performance and ETH rewards and increases network security by focusing on decentralization across the entire network.
MORE FRESH READS
Mara Schmiedt & Collin Myers – Secret Shared Validators on Eth2
Vitalik Buterin – List of EVM features potentially worth removing
What’s New in Eth2 – 27 February 2021
Vitalik Buterin – Prediction Markets: Tales from the Election
The Daily Gwei – Keeping Up With Ethereum
