Vitalik Buterin Affirms: Only a ‘Small Portion’ of ETH at Stake, Not All

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s Staking Strategy

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, recently revealed that he does not stake all of his Ether (ETH) due to complications with multisignature wallets. As of the latest update, the ETH price is $1,955.

Reasons Behind Vitalik Buterin’s Limited Staking

During the June 29 episode of the Bankless podcast, Buterin explained the main reason for only staking a small portion of his ETH:

“Because if you stake your ETH, the keys that access it have to be public on a subsystem that is online. For safety, it has to be a Multisig. Multisig for staking is still fairly difficult to set up; it gets complicated in a bunch of ways.”

Charles Hoskinson’s Response

Following Buterin’s revelation, Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Cardano (ADA), expressed surprise on Twitter. Hoskinson stated that he stakes “all” of his ADA, which is currently priced at $0.297.

The EigenLayer Protocol

During the podcast, Buterin also discussed the EigenLayer protocol, an upcoming feature that allows Ethereum validators and stakers to “re-stake” their assets on other emerging networks. The protocol is currently in its testnet phase, and the official launch is expected in the third quarter of 2023.

Buterin pointed out a major challenge with EigenLayer, emphasizing potential “centralization risks” arising from the protocol’s reliance on trustworthy stakers:

“Trustworthy stakers would be valued more by the system than untrustworthy stakers. Trustworthy stakers are much less likely to actually get slashed.”

Sreeram Kaanan, the founder of EigenLayer, also emphasized the importance of taking a “constrained approach in building restaking,” given the “complex risks” associated with it.

Previous Remarks on Ethereum’s Challenges

This recent discussion comes after Buterin’s earlier statement in a June 9 blog, where he pointed out that the Ethereum blockchain “fails” without sufficient scaling infrastructure to make transactions cheap. He also highlighted certain challenges related to smart contract wallets, explaining that moving to such wallets has brought complexities concerning user experience when managing multiple addresses simultaneously.