SOTS #20: A pooled staking platform has had ten validators slashed

Transcript

hey there uh it's december 3rd 2020. i'm super fizz i do a state of the state video kind of every day i actually plan to take a break today but something interesting just happened there were um 10 validators on the beacon chain network that were just slashed and exited it was over the course of about 30 minutes and the slashing has stopped but the interesting thing is that the research into it suggests that as far as we can tell well it's almost been confirmed that the slashing was committed against a um a staking provider like a service provider a pooled staking provider and the operator of the pool has

acknowledged uh they're in contact with people who can help them sort it out and uh understand it better but the important thing here to realize is it is not a good idea to put your hands in the fund f and put your funds in the hands of a pool staking provider this early in the network and i know that people are clamoring to do this i've seen lots of ads for the service that was slashed today and i i choose not to say their names number one because they haven't made a public statement and it's that's something that they should be allowed to do first and number two

because um i would rather promote anyone and say good things about um companies that i know rather than give negative attention uh for making poor choices but the reason i'm creating this video is because i've i've said for a long time and i really stand firmly by my advice not to participate in staking pools or staking as a service or exchange base staking yet uh now we do have some some things in the pipeline that are gonna make this better uh the the most important thing are some changes uh some potential changes to the protocol that will happen at the first beacon chain hard fork in five months i don't want to go too deeply into this yet because i only understand it at a

basic level but kind of what we're looking for is the opportunity for pulled providers to operate in a truly trustless way um again i prefer to be careful about what i say i'm going to learn more about it and i look forward to sharing that with you in the coming weeks and months but if you're a person who either has less than 32 ether or you are a person with a lot of either that you just don't want a stake the best thing that you can do right now is really just sit on the sidelines and watch things go you the gains that you stand to accumulate over the next few months are insignificant compared to the risk

that you take by having your ether locked up for two years and slashed and stuck in the network so anyway what i do want to tell you about the ethereum due diligence committee it is a group of subject matter experts of implementers who are working to look at these staking pools and um not really provide recommendations but sort of help you with due diligence it will always be your own responsibility to do due diligence and so part of that due diligence is hearing me say i don't think it's a good idea to participate in pooled staking or exchange-based staking right now

that should be one of the things you consider in your due diligence you'll also get information from the probably in the next few weeks i'm thinking between december 10th and december 14th we have requested information from all of the pools who stake for holders less than 32 ether and right now we're compiling that information and looking forward to sharing it back out after we've done that not we i'm actually just an observer but after that's done the due diligence committee will begin to evaluate the claims and the safety of each of those providers even when they're done their only helping you with due diligence it is still your responsibility

to conduct your own due diligence and make choices that are based on your own knowledge and experience because in the end the risk is yours what the ethereum due diligence committee wants to do is help you mitigate that risk by sharing impartial information that can help you make the best choices so anyway to wrap up um there was a slashing today um 10 uh validators were taken offline on the slashing it will take about 36 days for the full ramification of this to come through to find out how much they were fully slashed so i can't predict that but because there were 10 at one time it

will be more than the minimum penalty um i encourage you to resist the urge to yolo into any of the pool staking platforms um i i know that their marketing and advertising will try to convince you that they're safe and secure i still don't think it's a good idea when it is a good idea i'm going to be the first person to promote it for you and to tell you go in um it's just not time yet and so finally keep an eye out on the ethereum due diligence committee at eefdc.org for information regarding due diligence on these taking pools best wishes uh have a great day bye