Ethereum Proof-of-Stake Consensus Layer: Participation and Decentralization
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Author / Producer
Date
2025
Publication Type
Conference Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) during "the merge" - making it the largest PoS cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. With this work, we present a comprehensive measurement study of the current state of the Ethereum PoS consensus layer on the beacon chain. We perform a longitudinal study of the history of the beacon chain. Our work finds that all dips in network participation are caused by network upgrades, issues with major consensus clients, or issues with service operators controlling a large number of validators. Further, our longitudinal staking power decentralization analysis reveals that Ethereum PoS fairs similarly to its PoW counterpart in terms of decentralization and exhibits the immense impact of (liquid) staking services on staking power decentralization. Finally, we highlight the heightened security concerns in Ethereum PoS caused by high degrees of centralization.
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Publication status
published
External links
Book title
Financial Cryptography and Data Security. FC 2024 International Workshops
Journal / series
Volume
14746
Pages / Article No.
253 - 280
Publisher
Springer
Event
5th Workshop on Coordination of Decentralized Finance (CoDecFin 2024)
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Ethereum; Proof-of-Stake; Consensus layer; Decentralization
Organisational unit
03604 - Wattenhofer, Roger / Wattenhofer, Roger
Notes
Conference lecture held on March 8, 2024.
Funding
Related publications and datasets
Is new version of: 10.48550/arXiv.2306.10777