Vitalik Buterin proposes lowering the blocking threshold for Ethereum validators from 32 to 1 ETH

What’s new? Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed changes to the blockchain’s Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. In his opinion, the minimum number of ETH native tokens a user must stake to become a validator should be lowered. Currently, the threshold is 32 ETH, Buterin believes it should be reduced to 1 ETH.

Buterin’s blog

What else is known? According to the developer, the high threshold is an obstacle for solo stakers who want to contribute to Ethereum’s security but can not afford it. Lowering the threshold would allow more users to engage in solo staking and ultimately increase the network’s decentralization.

Solo stakers are individuals who lock their own coins in staking without relying on third-party services, centralized organizations, or staking pools. Network members are paid rewards for blocking coins in staking.

At the exchange rate as of October 15, the value of the 32 ETH required to become a validator is about $83 750. Buterin believes that lowering the threshold will be in line with Ethereum’s long-term vision of being accessible to a wider range of users.

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In addition, Buterin had already stated in September the importance of solo staking to maintain Ethereum’s decentralization. According to him, even a small percentage of individual players can add an important layer of protection to the blockchain.

However, the developer acknowledged that increasing the number of validators if the threshold is lowered could slow down the process of adding transactions to the blockchain and increase the cost of operating blockchain nodes.

To address this problem, Buterin proposed the concept of single-slot finality, which would speed up blockchain validation from the current 15 minutes to about 12 seconds.

The initiative is still in the discussion stage, and implementation will require testing and research to ensure that the stability of the network is not compromised.

In early 2025, developers will roll out an Ethereum upgrade called Pectra in two phases. One of its key points is to increase the maximum blockchain limit for a validator from 32 to 2048 ETH.

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If Buterin’s new proposal is approved, more individual players not tied to centralized structures will be able to participate in maintaining network security. In turn, large operators will be able to manage a smaller number of validators thanks to Pectra, which at the same time has more ETH in staking.

Currently, 34,6 million ETH, or 28,2% of the supply is staked. The segment leader is the liquid staking protocol Lido with a 28% share, followed by unidentified validators (17,5%) and crypto exchange Coinbase (11,6%), according to the Dune platform.