Popular Science: Can I run an ETH 2.0 validator myself?

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Ethereum enthusiasts (ID: ethfans)

, Author: Sacha Saint-Leger, Translator & Proofreader: Min Min & A Jian, reproduced by Odaily with authorization.

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You only need to ensure that the online time exceeds 50% to make a profit

Assuming the network is generally healthy (more than 2/3 of the nodes are always online and are always finalizing new blocks), validators who are online more than 50% of the time will see their stake continuously increase.

To quote a line from the Ethereum Foundation’s ETH Staking Guide series:

This relieves validators of the burden of client-side backups and network latency, since the penalty for going offline is not as severe.

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You are less likely to suffer a major penalty

The ETH 2.0 protocol has built-in anti-collusion incentives, that is, penalties are imposed on relevant validators when they make mistakes.

Proportional slashing means that if a staking service provider fails due to a bug or attack that causes all validators under their control to fail, they will lose more ETH than an individual running a validator node independently.

In addition, if the infrastructure of giant whales and providers is completely paralyzed, they will also face slowdown penalties and lose a large amount of ETH.

Even if the provider is careful to ensure that the geographical location and client software are decentralized, it is impossible to avoid all attacks (social engineering, external attackers intrusion or insiders).

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You reserve the right to withdraw

As an ETH 2.0 validator, you must keep two things safe - the signature private key and the withdrawal private key.

If you choose to use a staking service provider, you must hand over control of the signing private key to the provider (if there are multiple copies of a signing private key, it will be difficult for the provider to provide you with services that will not be confiscated).

That said, it's up to the provider whether you can quit if the provider goes offline, or if you're not happy with its service.

While you can get your provider to provide you with a signed exit channel through a key exchange before submitting your collateral, this scheme is not foolproof. Once a hard fork occurs, this message will become invalid. This requires constant tracking of the validity of this message and even multiple messages (from a user experience point of view, this is not good).

Staking hardware is cheap and easy to use

Running a validator node yourself is not as scary or expensive as you might think. Once ETH 2.0 goes live, you can run a validator node on an old phone or Raspberry Pi ($100).

We have written guides specifically for developers on how to run a validator node on Android using Nimbus (this and this respectively). We have been trying to simplify this process as much as possible before the mainnet launch. It is especially worth mentioning that the mainnet guide will be aimed at users who have no programming experience, and will try to achieve "installation + pledge ETH = normal operation" as much as possible.

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You can help make Ethereum more resistant to attacks

Rather than having the same entity control 100 nodes, let one entity control one node. ——Barnabe Monnot

From a long-term perspective, the higher the value of Ethereum and the stronger its resistance to attack, the higher the degree of decentralization of its consensus layer.