In a Q&A session during last week’s Devcon, Lido Co-Founder, Vasiliy Shapovalov, claimed that users who participate in Ethereum staking by running in-home nodes are “hobbyists,” adding
“Most solo providers are not rational, they are not making a business out of it, they just do it for fun.”
He further stated that the hardware used for Ethereum staking should be managed by “professionals.”
His statements allude to the high entry barrier for Ethereum staking. To validate transactions on the Ethereum network, one needs at least 32 ETH.
Lido addresses this high capital requirement by grouping several users’ Ethereum assets into units of 32 ETH tokens. This allows users with a fraction of the required tokens to stake their assets and earn rewards.
Shapovalov’s opinions soon attracted the attention of the Ethereum community.
Many stated that his views on at-home staking went against Ethereum’s goal of achieving decentralization. Others considered his words to be highly patronizing to solo stakers.
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In the words of Darren Langley, General Manager of Lido's rival firm, Rocket Pool,
"If you’re a business, your sole purpose for being is to generate profit. As a home staker, you may do it for fun, but I would certainly say that you are much more passionate than most businesses."
Ben Edgington, the Founder of Teku Ethereum 2.0 client, disapproved of Shapovalov's comments. He argued that solo staking is "economically rational" and tweeted,
I'm going to be generous here and apply Hanlon's razor - that @LidoFinance simply don't get it.
— Ben Edgington (@benjaminion_xyz) October 13, 2022
But it is getting increasingly hard not to conclude that they are bad-faith actors. https://t.co/kNCTM8iazL
In response, Shapovalov noted that Edgington’s words “cut deep.”
If we are to have 10k more people to run validation at home, it can’t be with bonded models. The pool of people who have the chops and time to maintain the node + are willing to lock up what's essentially a fortune in most parts of the world, I reckon, nearly fully exhausted.
— Vasiliy Shapovalov (@_vshapovalov) October 14, 2022
He also tried to make amends with the solo stakers by claiming,
“I also don’t understand why having a path in Lido for hobby stakers, the ones who want it, to make a living [off] their passion is a bad thing.”
