To address growing concerns over long waiting times and the high demand for Ethereum validator nodes, developers are considering a substantial increase in the current limits. The proposed change suggests raising the validator limit by 6,300%, from 32 ether (ETH) to 2,048 ether. Consequently, significant entities like Lido and staking services provided by crypto exchanges have had to set up multiple validator nodes to offer staking yield services to their users.
During an Ethereum core developer call, developers acknowledged that the existing limit has led to a rapid expansion of the network's validator set, resulting in a significant increase in the number of validators participating in the network.
The proposal, introduced by Ethereum developers Mike Neuder, Francesco D'Amato, Aditya Asgaonkar, and Justin Drake, is currently being debated and needs to be actively worked on.
Validators play a crucial role in proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum as they process transactions and contribute to the overall security of the network. Recent data reveals that the waiting time for users to run a validator node on Ethereum has increased to 44 days, up from approximately a month in May. However, exiting the network remains relatively quick, taking only a few minutes. As of Monday, no entity is currently in the "exit queue," as the data indicates.
The strong demand for validators to join the network and earn a nearly 5% annual yield is driven by large ether holders who prefer earning passive income on their holdings rather than cashing out. This suggests a sustained interest from investors seeking to make the most of their Ethereum holdings.
