Staking and the Ethereum 2.0 merge

BlockchainGandalf

English - September 12, 2022 17:50 - 7 minutes - 6.52 MB
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In this episode, I talk about the key mechanism whereby the move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is managed - the staking of ETH. Not from a technical point of view, but from a marketplace one.

Releasing a staking smart contract is a popular trick in token projects to artificially decrease the supply of the token, hence increasing its price.

In Ethereum, the staking requirement can be fully justified by the fact that proof of stake requires ... well, staking of course. And the move to proof of stake can be justified by efficiency and environmental arguments.

It is convenient though, that the move to proof of stake probably has increased the market value of ETH, and has moved "mining" profits from the Ethereum miners with their batteries of mining hardware to the owners of spare ETH that was previously just sitting there doing nothing.

The fact that these owners of spare ETH happen to be the initial project architects and early project supporters is by-the-by.

Anyone want to buy a spare graphics card? Barely used...