Hasu and Jon bring on Ansgar and Caspar from the Ethereum Foundation to discuss the ETH staking endgame.
Ansgar and Caspar recently published two controversial research posts which included a proposal to change Ethereum’s issuance curve. They are concerned that the current ETH staking economics could lead to nearly 100% of ETH being staked, with much of that in LSTs. They propose reducing issuance and targeting a lower stake rate.
We go deep in this episode on PoS economics, liquid staking, restaking, economic security, centralization concerns, and much more.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:25) Possible Changes to ETH Staking?
(00:49) Overview of Current ETH Staking
(16:32) LSTs & Staking Rate Increasing
(21:36) Nominal vs Real Yield
(23:22) Tax Implications of Staking
(27:57) Staking Demand & External Revenue
(35:33) Stake Ratio Targeting
(36:21) Is 100% Staking Bad?
(40:05) Can ETH LSTs be Money?
(55:24) Would Any Changes Make a Difference?
(01:04:05) Stake Targeting
(01:10:20) Will Targeting Centralize Validators?
(01:22:53) Fiat Money Parallels
(01:25:16) MEV & Restaking Revenue
(01:30:52) Electra Proposal to Change Issuance
(01:46:01) Security Budget & Economic Security